Question

Abstract on harrappan civilisation

Answer 1

ABSTRACT

The Harappan Civilisation (HC) was spread over large parts of western region of the Indian Subcontinent. Its earliest roots can be found from 7000 BC in Mehrgarh but its peak urban period is around 2500 to 1900 BC. It declined completely by 1300 BC. At its peak, it covered more than 30 per cent of the present landmass of the Indian Subcontinent. The entire evidence for it is archaeologi- cal. It is classified as proto-historic since in the absence of deci- phered written records it is not possible to create a detailed scena- rio of its evolution (Possehl 1999). From archaeological data, the timeline of the HC can be discerned, but the archaeological evi- dence of individual regions is not detailed enough to permit a systematic study of the rise and fall of HC (cf. Wright 2010). However, a lot of work has been done to understand other cultures and their evolution.

Answer 2

The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC ) was a Bronze Age civilisation (3300–1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900 BCE) mainly in the northwestern regions of
South Asia , extending from what today is northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India. [1] Along with
ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia it was one of three early civilisations of the
Old World , and of the three, the most widespread. [2][note 1] It flourished in the basins of the Indus River, which flows through the length of Pakistan, and along a system of perennial, mostly monsoon-fed, rivers that once coursed in the vicinity of the seasonal
Ghaggar-Hakra river in northwest India and eastern Pakistan. [1][3]
Aridification of this region during the 3rd millennium BCE may have been the initial spur for the urbanisation associated with the civilisation, but eventually also reduced the water supply enough to cause the civilisation's demise, and to scatter its population eastward. [4][5][3][6]
Excavated ruins of Mohenjo-daro,
Sindh province, Pakistan, showing the Great Bath in the foreground. Mohenjo-daro, on the right bank of the Indus River , is a UNESCO World Heritage Site , the first site in South Asia to be so declared.
Miniature Votive Images or Toy Models from Harappa, ca. 2500. Hand-modeled terra-cotta figurines indicate the yoking of zebu oxen for pulling a cart and the presence of the
chicken , a domesticated jungle fowl.
The civilisation's cities were noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, clusters of large non-residential buildings, and new techniques in handicraft (carnelian products, seal carving) and metallurgy (copper, bronze, lead, and tin). [7] Its large urban centres of
Mohenjo-daro and Harappa very likely grew to containing between 30,000 and 60,000 individuals, [8][note 2] and the civilisation itself during its florescence may have contained between one and five million individuals. [9][note 3]
The Indus civilisation is also known as the Harappan Civilisation , after its type site, Harappa, the first of its sites to be excavated in the 1920s in what was then the Punjab province of British India and now is Pakistan. [10][note 4] The discovery of Harappa and soon afterwards Mohenjo-Daro was the culmination of work beginning in 1861 with the founding of the
Archaeological Survey of India during the British Raj .[11] There were however also earlier and later cultures often called Early Harappan and Late Harappan in the same area; for this reason, the Harappan civilisation is sometimes called the Mature Harappan' culture to distinguish it from these cultures. By 2002, over 1,000 Mature Harappan cities and settlements had been reported, of which just under a hundred had been excavated, [12][note 5][13][14][note 6] mainly in the general region of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra Rivers and their tributaries; however, there are only five major urban sites at the peak of the settlement hierarchy: [15][note 7] Harappa, Mohenjo-daro (UNESCO World Heritage Site ), Dholavira,
Ganeriwala in Cholistan and
Rakhigarhi. [16][note 8] The early Harappan cultures were preceded by local Neolithic agricultural villages, from which the river plains were populated. [17][18]
The Harappan language is not directly attested, and its affiliation is uncertain since the Indus script is still undeciphered. [19] A relationship with the Dravidian or Elamo-Dravidian language family is favoured by a section of scholars. [20][21]
Name
The Indus Valley Civilisation is named after the Indus river system in whose
alluvial plains the early sites of the civilisation were identified and excavated. [22][note 9] Following a tradition in archaeology, the civilisation is sometimes referred to as the Harappan, after Harappa , the first site to be excavated in the 1920s; [23] this is notably true of usage by the Archaeological Survey of India after India's independence in 1947.[24]
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