How old is the Indus Valley Civilization ?

Prologue

Street of Mohenjo Daro /
Quratulain / CC-BY-SA 3.0

I saw the feature film Mohenjo Daro a few days ago. Unlike what critics said at the time of its release, I found it to be fairly authentic in treatment of the setting of the Indus Valley Civilization. I then chanced upon this lovely little clip on the city by the national geographic.

Another little clip, teaching history to Indian students in Hindi, was nice too : though he is wrong in stating there were no cows in the Indus Valley Civilization.

And here, a video by the famous Khan Academy. The guy who started the Khan Academy is Salman Khan - an American of South Asian origin (father from Bangladesh, mother from India, and wife from Pakistan !) whose educational videos on various subjects have been watched 1.5 billion times. 

In the times of the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan and contesting histories, I felt the need to study the Indus Valley Civilization more - the earliest civilization in South Asia..

Timeline of the Indus Valley Civilization

9000 years ago : Signs of the early civilization have been found near the Ghagra-Hakra rivers from 9,000 years ago called the pre-harappan phase.

Picture of Mother Godess figurine /
Quratulain / CC-BY-SA 3.0

The earliest farming was developed by semi-nomadic people using plants such as wheat and barley and animals such as sheep, goats and cattle. Houses were simple mud buildings. Numerous burials show goods such as baskets, stone and bone tools, beads and bangles. Ornaments of sea shell, limestone, turquoise, lapis lazuli and sandstone have been found, along with simple figurines of women and animals. Sea shells from far sea shore and lapis lazuli found as far away as present day Badakshan, Afghanistan shows good contact with those areas.

7500 years ago : Artefacts from 7500 years ago show much evidence of manufacturing activity and more advanced techniques used. Technologies included stone and copper drills, updraft kilns, large pit kilns and copper melting crucibles. There is further evidence of long-distance trade. Mud brick houses have been found at Bhirrana settlement in Haryana, close to the presently dried up Ghaggar-Hakra river bed, with advanced material culture including arrow heads, rings and bangles of copper; beads of carnelian, jasper, and shell; and bull and female figurines. Ceramics with geometric, floral and faunal motifs were also found. The first button seals were produced from terracotta and bone and had geometric designs. Settled populations expanded in this phase.

Indus Valley Civilization, 3000 BC / Nomu420 /CC-BY SA-3.0

5500 years ago : The Early Harappan Phase began 5500 years ago and the earliest examples of the Indus script date to this time. Trade networks linked this culture with related regional cultures and distant sources of raw materials, including lapis lazuli and other materials for bead-making. By this time, villagers had domesticated numerous crops, including peas, sesame seeds, dates, and cotton, as well as animals, including the water buffalo.

4500 years ago : Early Harappan communities turned to large urban centres 4500 years ago, from where the mature Harappan phase started. Flood-supported farming led to large agricultural surpluses, which in turn supported the development of cities. The development of advanced cities coincides with a reduction in rainfall, which may have triggered a re-organisation into larger urban centers. Indus Valley people migrated from villages to cities. Large walled settlements were built, and trade networks expanded. The increasing integration of regional communities into a "relatively uniform" material culture in terms of pottery styles, ornaments, and stamp seals with Indus script was seen.  A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture became evident in the Indus Valley Civilisation.

Bullock cart driver, 2000 bc /
Yann / CC-BY-SA 4.0

4000 years ago : Around 4000 years ago signs of a gradual decline began to emerge, and by around 3500 years ago most of the cities had been abandoned. Recent examination of human skeletons from the site of Harappa has demonstrated that the end of the Indus civilisation saw an increase in inter-personal violence and in infectious diseases like leprosy and tuberculosis.

According to historian Upinder Singh, "the general picture presented by the late Harappan phase is one of a breakdown of urban networks and an expansion of rural ones."

The late Harappan phase witnessed large-scale de-urbanisation, drop in population, abandonment of established settlements, violence and even the disappearance of the Harappan script, the researchers say.