Important Sites of Indus Valley Civilization – Apart from Harappa
Harappan Civilization
Harappan Civilization was also known as the Indus Valley Civilization, as the most significant shreds of evidence of its achievements were excavated from Harappa. Indus Valley art emerged during the second half of the third millennium BCE (i.e., from 2500 BC onwards). This article will shed light on the Harappan Civilization.
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| Indus Valley Civilization |
Apart from Harappa, some of the important sites of the Indus Valley Civilization were Dholavira, Mohenjodaro, Ganweriwala, Lothal, Kalibangan, Surkotada, etc.
In India, the major sites of the Indus Valley Civilization are given below:
- Lothal and Dholavira were located in Gujarat.
- Kalibangan and Balathal were located in Rajasthan.
- Rakhigarhi was located in Haryana.
- The Indus Valley Civilization was also located in Ropar which is currently located in Punjab
The two most prominent sites were Harappa and Mohenjodaro, both of which are currently located in present-day Pakistan.
Excavations of Indus cities have produced much evidence of artistic activity. Such finds are important because they provide insights into the minds, lives, and religious beliefs of their creators. Stone sculpture is extremely rare, and much of it is quite crude. The total repertoire cannot compare to the work done in Mesopotamia during the same periods. The figures are apparently all intended as images for worship. Such figures include seated men, recumbent composite animals, or—in unique instances (from Harappa)—a standing nude male and a dancing figure. The finest pieces are of excellent quality. There is also a small but notable repertoire of cast-bronze figures, including several fragments and complete examples of dancing girls, small chariots, carts, and animals. The technical excellence of the bronzes suggests a highly developed art, but the number of examples is still small. They appear to be Indian workmanship rather than imports.
Harappan Civilization – Urban Planning
In the Harappan cities, urban planning was highly developed.
- The houses in the cities were well-planned.
- The materials used for building purposes were sun-dried bricks and burnt bricks.
- Houses had separate bathing areas.
- The houses were one or two-storeyed.
- The houses in Harappan Civilization had wells.
- Each house had a proper drainage system which was connected to the drainage system of the streets.
- In the Harappan Civilization, the drainage system was well-structured.
- The streets of the Harappan Civilization were well-planned.
- The streets of the Harappan Civilization had a proper system of waste disposal, lighting, drainage, and water supply.
Language, scripts, weights, and measures
The maintenance of so extensive a set of relations as those implicit in the size and uniformity of the Harappan state and the extent of trade contacts must have called for a well-developed means of communication. The Harappan script has long defied attempts to read it, and therefore the language remains unknown. Relatively recent analyses of the order of the signs on the inscriptions have led several scholars to the view that the language is not of the Indo-European family, nor is it close to Sumerian, Hurrian, or Elamite. If it is related to any modern language family, it appears to be the Dravidian, presently spoken throughout the southern part of the Indian peninsula; an isolated member of this group, the Brahui language, is spoken in western Pakistan, an area closer to those regions of Harappan culture. The script, which was written from right to left, is known from the 2,000-odd short inscriptions so far recovered, ranging from single characters to inscriptions of about 20 characters. There are more than 500 signs, many appearing to be compounds of two or more other signs, but it is not yet clear whether these signs are ideographic, logographic, or other. Numerous studies of the inscriptions have been made during the past decades, including those by a Russian team under Yury Valentinovich Knorozov and a Finnish group led by Asko Parpola. Despite various claims to have read the script, there is still no general agreement.
The Harappans also employed regular systems of weights and measures. An early analysis of a fair number of the well-formed chert cuboid weights suggested that they followed a binary system for the lower denominations—1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64—and a decimal system for the larger weights—160, 200, 320, 640, 1,600, 3,200, 6,400, 8,000, and 12,800—with the unit of weight being calculated as 0.8565 gram (0.0302 ounce). However, a more recent analysis, which included additional weights from the small settlement excavated at Lothal, suggests a rather different system, with weights belonging to two series. In both series the underlying principle was decimal, with each decimal number multiplied and divided by two, giving for the main series ratios of 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500(?). This suggests that there is still much work to be done to understand the full complexity of the weight system. Several scales of measurement were found in the excavations. One was a decimal scale of 1.32 inches (3.35 cm) rising probably to 13.2 inches (33.5 cm), apparently corresponding to the “foot” that was widespread in western Asia; another is a bronze rod marked in lengths of 0.367 inch (0.93 cm), apparently half a digit of a “cubit” of 20.7 inches (52.6 cm), also widespread in western Asia and Egypt. Measurements from some of the structures show that these units were accurately applied in practice.
It has also been suggested that certain curious objects may have been accurately made optical squares with which surveyors might offset right angles. In view of the accuracy of so much of the architectural work, this theory appears quite plausible.
