Indus Valley Civilization

Indus Valley human advancement (Indus Valley Progress), otherwise called the Indus civilization (Indus civilization) or Harappan Civilization (Harappan Development).

Indian subcontinent earliest known urban culture, 1921 for the first time in Punjab (Punjab) in Xalapa found that in 1922 and in a letter Nadu (Sindh) within the Indus River Mohenjo-Daro (Mohenjo-daro ) Discovered (now both places belong to Pakistan ).

Later, 480 kilometers (300 miles) west of Karachi, near Sutkagen Dor on the Arabian coast, 1,600 kilometers (1000 miles) northeast of Karachi , Simla Hills (Simla Hills) Rupar in the foothills, in the Gulf of Cambay, 800 kilometers (500 miles) southeast of Karachi, on the south west coast, and in the Yamuna River, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Delhi The remnants of this civilization have been found in the Yamuna Basin. It is more widely distributed than the earlier Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations .

Geographic location Pakistan-India

Land area 5 km

Watershed civilization

Indus Valley human advancement (Indus Valley Progress), otherwise called the Indus civilization (Indus civilization) or Harappan Civilization (Harappan Development).

Indian subcontinent earliest known urban culture, 1921 for the first time in Punjab (Punjab) discovery of Harappa, 1922, also found in the letter Nadu (Sindh) in India River Mohenjo-Daro (Mohenjo-daro) (Both places belong to Pakistan). Later, in Rupar at the foothills of Simla Hills, 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) northeast of Karachi, and in the Gulf of Cambe, which is 800 kilometers (500 miles) southeast of Karachi, south of the west coast. of Cambay), and in the Yamuna Basin, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Delhi , the remains of this civilization have been found. It is more widely distributed than the earlier Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations. Mohenjo-daro (Mohenjo-daro) is the first large-scale ancient city established in the world.

Scope of influence

The Indus civilization includes two large cities, Harappa and Mohenzo Daro, and more than 100 smaller towns and villages. [1] Both large cities have a radius of more than 5 kilometers (3 miles). From their scale, it can be inferred that they are the political centers of two large states or a large empire that alternately used the two places as capitals (in Indian history there was originally one country and two capitals However, it is also possible that Harapa became the seat of the capital after Mohenzo Daro, because Mohenzo Daro was damaged by the flood more than once. In Kathiawar and the southern cultural region further south, it was developed slightly later than the main Indus region. This culture has scripts, with about 250 to 500 characters, some of which have been tried for interpretation. This language It has been temporarily classified into the Dravidian language family. The central period of this civilization is about 2500 to 1700 years ago, but the southern region culture that appeared in the 2000s may last even later.

Origin development

The Indus civilization obviously evolved from neighboring places or ancient villages. Adopting Mesopotamian irrigated farming methods, one has enough technology to harvest crops in the vast and fertile Indus Valley, and then it can control the annual floods that will both fertile the land and cause disasters. Once the new civilization gains a foothold in the plains and can deal with immediate problems, it will undoubtedly provide food and clothing for the people and increase the population. The next step is of course to expand along both sides of the river . Although sporadic commerce has appeared here, the people still rely on agriculture for their livelihood. In addition to planting wheat and six-row barley, they also found fodder beans, mustard, sesame, some date seeds and some traces of the earliest cotton planting. Domesticated animals include dogs, cats , zebu, shorthorn cattle, poultry, etc., and may have raised pigs, camels, and buffaloes. Elephants may also be domesticated, and the use of ivory is quite common. As there are no minerals in the alluvial plains, minerals are sometimes transported from other places. Gold was imported from South India or Afghanistan, silver and copper were imported from Afghanistan or Northwest India (now Rajasthan), lapis lazuli was from Afghanistan, turquoise was from Iran (Persia), and the jade-like muscovite was from southern India .

The civilization of the Indus Valley occurred later than the civilization of the Nile Basin (4000 years ago) and the civilization of the Mesopotamia (4000 years ago). It was approximately 2600–1500 BC. Archeological work in Mohenjo-daro and Harappa in the Indus Valley, with a population of more than 40,000. There is an artificial mound in the center of the two cities, which is used as an acropolis .A huge animal dwelling place was based on this hill For the residents, it is like the Central Bank . The ruins of the ancient city were discovered, and a large number of stone tools, bronzes, and crops were discovered. At the same time, a large number of seals were unearthed , but there was no text on the seals. It can be interpreted, and it is not even sure whether it is a text or an image symbol.

Discovery process

The Indus is probably the longest waterway on the planet.

But before the 18th century, people never thought that this rare river hidden in the desert had a brilliance comparable to that of ancient Egypt.Furthermore, contrasted and other old human advancements, it is totally exceptional.

The first time that the Indus civilization caught people's attention was the excavation of the Harappa site in the 18th century. The remnants of the metropolis were found here. In the middle of the 19th century, when Indian Archaeology Director Cunningham went to Harappa for the second time, he unearthed a peculiar seal, but he thought it was just a foreign object and only wrote a simple report. After 50 years, no one was there anymore. Pay attention to this site. Unsurprisingly, a large number of sites belonging to the same civilization have been discovered in an area of 1,600 kilometers from east to west and 1,400 kilometers from north to south, centered on the Punjab area including Harappa. This discovery shocked the archaeological world, because the ancient civilization with such a large scope is unique in the world.

In 1922, by chance, people discovered the remains of Mohenzo Daro, 600 kilometers south of Xalapa. The objects unearthed here were similar to those unearthed in Xalapa. People only remembered the Xalapa 50 years ago. With the seal unearthed in Pa, archaeologists began to pay attention to the vast area between the two sites. These sites are located in the Indus Valley, so they are called the Indus Civilization. According to textual research, the site was built 5,000 years ago or even earlier. However, what is exciting is not only its size and age. Soon people discovered that although these sites belong to the same civilization, the living standards are not the same. What is the reason?

Research Exploration

Scientific research

The results of the research on the Indian seal unearthed in Harappa were disappointing. No one could interpret the words on the seal. Writing is the level of a country’s civilization, and a seal with writing may play an important role in political and economic activities. Moreover, the seal was only unearthed in Mohenzo Daro and Xalapa, so experts inferred that both Mohenzo Daro and Xalapa are cities, which can explain why people in the same civilization have different living standards. , Of course this is just speculation. In order to further confirm the urban nature of Mohenzo-Daro and Xalapa, archaeologists conducted the most extensive excavations of Mohenzo-Daro. The city of Mohenzo Daro covers an area of about 260 hectares, with an area of influence of 100 square kilometers, divided into a castle on the west side and a vast city block on the east side. The castle on the west side is built on a foundation that is 10 meters high. Inside the castle, there are a large brick barn and a clean body building called the "big bath". The most surprising thing is the size of the barn. It seems to show the abundance of the city at that time. But how was the grain that filled the big barn collected?

There are streets extending in all directions in the urban area, each of which runs east-west and north-south are more than 10 meters wide. Residents' houses have wells and courtyards, and the building materials of houses are fired bricks. If you didn't see it with your own eyes, it would be unbelievable, because in other ancient civilizations, bricks were only used for the construction of palaces and temples. What surprised archaeologists most was the complete drainage system. Its level of perfection may not be able to reach even the best modern cities in the world today. The water in the flushing toilet on the second floor can be drained to the sewer through the soil pipe in the wall, and some people have garbage pipes for dumping garbage through tall buildings. The sewage from each house settles in the water storage tanks outside the house and then flows into underground waterways like culverts, which crisscross the entire city. Faced with such dense underground waterways, people can't help but be dumbfounded. There are sentries throughout the residential area. Judging from the results of the excavation, this is a city that pays great attention to the public facilities of citizens’ lives. What kind of society is it? Why does it have no palaces and all housing standards are the same? It is completely different from the ancient Inca, which is full of palaces and temples. , Mesopotamia, Kings, Pharaoh’s mausoleum, and Egypt, where the rich and the poor disparity between the rich and the poor? In addition to complete public facilities, there are also many ports leading to the Indus River and the Arabian Sea . This is a broad and positive experience at home and abroad Performance of economic activity. Who planned all this? This designer can be said to have a modern mind. In addition, the entire Mohenzo Darrow has no defense system, no attack weapons, and no exquisite works of art. This is the only known precedent in ancient civilizations.

Related exploration

(The following content belongs to archaeological legends)

Who are the rulers of these cities? Archaeologists first searched for palaces and temples in Mohenzo Daro, as usual, but found nothing. This raises another question: Who is it and what method is used to rule this vast land? And Mohenzo Daro and Xalapa have exactly the same city construction, are they both capitals? Because there is no temple, Can you use examples from other ancient civilizations-ancient Inca, Mesopotamia, and ancient Egypt where kings also served as pharaohs or priest kings to speculate on the ruler? There are indeed no traces of priest king rule found in all the sites. Could it be that the Indus civilization over 5000 years ago has abandoned the monarchy? It is impossible for such a large country to have no rulers. Archaeologists carefully studied the first and later unearthed seals, but after a century of hard work, the words on the seal are still Unable to read. So, is it a symbol of power? If so, why don't these two cities have temples and palaces? Because a small part of the seals are engraved with idols, some people speculate that this may be a religious relic. However, some people argued that this is entirely a family or personal preservation, which does not mean that the entire country has a religious nature. Moreover, the nearly 30,000 seals unearthed contain only a small part of the idols. The mystery is growing. Some people think that as long as they can interpret the words on the seal, they can explain the ins and outs of this civilization. In fact, writing can enable people to understand the origin and decline of the entire civilization. Most archaeologists believe that it is necessary to study from many aspects in order to compare them by analogy.

Who created this civilization? At first, people mistakenly thought that it was developed under the influence of other civilizations. However, further archaeological discoveries showed that neither the words nor the seals could be seen elsewhere, and the identification of unearthed human bones also showed The people here are a mixture of elements of many races, not a specific ethnic group that is known.

Those who built such a highly civilized city in places that were no longer inhabitable, if they were not the ancestors of the Indians, who were they? How was the Indus civilization abandoned? The latter can be obtained from Mohenjo Da Some clues were found on the bones unearthed by Luo. The human bones unearthed here all died in a very strange state. In other words, the dead were not buried in the tomb. Archaeologists found that these people died suddenly. In the usual ancient civilization sites, unless earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have occurred, there will be no sudden deaths. Mohenzo Darrow did not have the above two incidents. The human bones were found in the lounge room. Many of the remains of the living room fell in piles, which is horrible. The most striking thing is that Zai's body covered his face with his hands in a way of protecting himself. If it were not for volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, what kind of terror caused these people to die instantly? This is a mystery for a long time. Archaeologists have put forward hypotheses such as epidemics, attacks, and mass suicides. Was overthrown. Neither epidemics nor mass suicides can explain "an instant" death. And who is washing things by the well and bathing in the bath? In order to solve this mystery, Indian archaeologist Kaha conducted a detailed chemical analysis of the unearthed human bones. Dr. Kaha’s report said: “I found traces of high temperature heating in 9 bones... Needless to say, this is certainly not a cremation, and there is no sign of fire.” What caused Mohenzo Daro’s abnormal high temperature. What about the death of the residents? People are reminded of the nuclear wars that occurred in many parts of the world in ancient times that some scientists inferred. Is there any relationship between the site of Mohenzo Daro and the imaginary nuclear war in ancient times? In fact, the Indo-Asian continent is the battlefield of ancient nuclear war that is often recited in epic myths. The war scenes described in the great narrative poem "Mahabharata" from 400 BC, such as the tragic scene after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima , mentioned weapons that are incomparable even with modern weapons. More importantly, such a horrible and painful memory is not comparable to the "Hiroshima" incident in 1945.

Watershed city

Introduction

The cities in the Indus Valley were unique at the time because they were not built arbitrarily like rabbit farms, but carefully built according to a central plan. In their heyday, the cities occupies six to seven square miles. The layout of the city is grid-shaped, with broad main streets surrounding rectangular streets. Each square is around 400 yards in length and 200 yards wide, which is a lot bigger than the standard squares in the city. The buildings in Egypt are made of stone, the buildings in Mesopotamia are made of sun-dried bricks, and the buildings in these cities are built with bricks fired in kilns. There are only two standard sizes for making bricks in the entire Indus Valley: 11x5.5X2.5 inches and 9.2x4.5X2.2 inches. It can be seen that the weights and measures in different places are also consistent. Such a uniform layout and methodical organization seems to spread throughout the Indus Civilization Zone. This civilization reached its maturity around 2500 BC, and for the next 1000 years, it was actually in a static state and, even to such an extent, that these cities were rebuilt every time they were devastated by floods. The new city is always made exactly like the original city.

Evaluation

A particularly predictable and nonstop custom has never existed on the planet, even in Egypt.Therefore, there is a hypothesis that may be a spiritual force that controls this disciplined society. The lack of military equipment and fortifications also provided evidence for this hypothesis. However, all of this is only speculation after all , and it can only be speculation until more ancient city ruins are excavated and the text of the Indus Valley can be interpreted. The characters of the Indus Valley are hieroglyphs. The upper line is read from left to right, and the lower line is read from right to left. This writing method was also imitated by the early Greeks, and it was called "calligraphy of alternating lines from left to right, then from right to left", just like an ox ploughing a field.

Urban architecture

It is distributed in a grid with the Acropolis as the center, with municipal buildings, markets, workshops, storage areas, residents and temples. Each residential building was built around a courtyard, with several rooms, a toilet and a well. The basic building materials are adobe bricks made from wood-burning kilns.An enormous shower was based on the acropolis of Mohenzo Daro, with private showers, clubs, and so on

Agricultural crafts

Like all other ancient civilizations, the Indus civilization is mainly an agricultural civilization. The main crops are wheat and barley, but local residents also grow purple peas, melons, sesame seeds, dates, and cotton-the Indus Valley was the first to use cotton to weave cloth. Domesticated animals include dogs, cats, yaks, buffaloes, and possibly pigs, camels, horses, and donkeys. There are also considerable trade relations with the outside world; including Mesopotamia, where the seal of the Indus Valley was found in the ruins of 2300 BC. Some other Indus basin products were also found on Bahrain Island in the Persian Gulf , indicating that Bahrain Island is an intermediate station for seaborne trade between Mesopotamia and the Indus basin.

Cash crops

Farmers in the Indus Valley grow barley, wheat, cotton, melons and dates .They additionally tamed elephants and bison to work in the fields. This region has numerous capable made earthenware , they created ceramics with potter's wheel, which at the time was another innovation. The Harapas used stone tools and made knives, weapons, bowls and statues from bronze. They have established a well-developed waste disposal system, including a drainage system with a cover and a chute for dumping garbage.

Art development

Perhaps the most famous crafts of the Indus civilization are stamps, usually made of talc, with different types and unique characteristics. The patterns include all kinds of animals, including real animals such as elephants, tigers, rhinos, and antelopes, as well as fantasy or patchwork animals, and sometimes carved human figures. A small number of Indus stone carvings have also been found, usually small and in the form of human figures or gods. In addition, many small terracotta statues of animals and people have been found.

The mystery of disappearance

When and why the Indus civilization ended is still unclear, such a widespread culture really does not have to assume that it has a consistent end time. However, the demise of Mohenzo Darrow is known, and it is dramatic and sudden. It was attacked and looted by invaders in the mid-2000s, leaving this dead city in place . It remains to be verified who the intruder is. This piece of history seems to be on time and space with ancient books, " Rig Veda the ancient Aryan referred to" (Rigveda) match against the Indian River region. It describes the newcomers attacking the "walled cities" or "fortresses" of the aboriginals. The Aryan war god Indra broke the city "like time erodes a robe." What is certain is that before Mohenzo Daro suffered a fatal blow, his economic and social conditions were already in severe decline. The floods had inundated most areas more than once, and the construction of houses was getting worse and worse, and there was overcrowding. Phenomenon. The fatal blow seems to come suddenly, but the city is indeed dying. There are real evidences to prove that the culture of the Indus Valley after this civilization is extremely barren. A small part of the heritage of the sub- Indus culture is also derived from Iran and the Caucasus Mountains. Aspects of the composition; in fact, in general, it was affected by the invasion of the Aryans. For hundreds of years, the urban culture of the northwestern Indian subcontinent was silent.

However, the situation in Katiawa in the south and further south seems to be quite different. The actual cultural connection between the late Indus civilization and the Bronze Age culture can still be seen here. This cultural connection is also from 1700 to 1000 BC The characteristics of Indian culture in the middle and west. These cultures constitute an important bridge between the original Indus Valley civilization and the Iron Age culture developed in India about 1,000 years ago.

The cause and details of the decline of the Indus civilization are unclear. So far, it is generally believed that the decline was mainly due to the Aryan invasion; however, it has been suggested that this civilization may actually be submerged by mud. According to this statement, underground volcanic activity caused a large amount of mud, silt and sand to gush out of the ground, blocking the river, forming a large lake, and flooding Mohenzo Daro. Decades later, the dams that blocked the river were gradually worn out, and the river flowed through the dams, and the river regained its original waterways. However, the city of Mohenzo Daro has been destroyed. Judging from the layer after layer of silt in Mohenzo Daro, this disaster has occurred at least five times. Finally, it brought irreparable damage to the center of the Indus civilization, making the northern border region very weak and unable to resist the invasion of the Aryans, and making the southern border region too weak to resist the assimilation of local culture .

Related claims

Statement one

No one knows who the inhabitants of the Indus Valley are, and no one knows where they come from. We cannot read their text. This area has similarities with Sumer , but there are also obvious differences. They do business with the residents of Sumerian cities, and also do business with people from Indian and Central Asian tribes. The Indus civilization lasted for 800 years. No one knows why it ended, but there are several theories: river flooding; plague ; trade or economic or domestic order collapse; it was replaced by Aryans and so on.

Some people believe that the Indus civilization and other civilizations coexisted at the same time. Can it be said that at the beginning of the development of the Indus River civilization, it was influenced by foreign civilizations. However, a unique and highly civilized civilization has been bred in the long history.