#6 The First Urbanisation

Migration of Homo-sapiens into India
According to currently accepted theory homo-sapiens originated from Africa around 150,000 years back. From there they mograted to rest of the world. After the end of the last ice age, around 10,000 BC, most of the earth was occupied.

How homo-sapiens migrated to India from Africa is beautifully explained by Bradshaw Foundation in Association with Stephen Oppenheimer. (click here to see the presentation)

The migration to India happened in three times.

1. Around 80,000 years back, movement took place via India to South-East Asia and China. Subsequently, the erruption of Mt. Toba wiped out the entire population of India.
2. Around 55,000 years back people migrated from South-East Asia to India.
3. About the same time another group migrated from South-West Asia.

The Harappan Civilisation developed at approximately the same time as the early city states of Egypt and Mesopotamia. The urban civilization spread over a vast geographical region, from the high mountains of Baluchistan and Afghanistan to the coastal regions of Makran, Sindh and Gujarat. Large cities and smaller towns grew up along the major trade routes as administrative and ritual centers. During the full urban phase of this civilization, there is evidence for trade contact with the surrounding cultures in the Arabian gulf, West and Central Asia and peninsular India. Some of the technologies, architecture, artistic symbols and aspects of social organization that characterized the first urban centers of the Indus Civilization have continued up to the present in the urban setting of traditional South Asian cities.

• Map of Indus civilization
• A detailed account of the civilisation is written by Jonathan Mark Kenoyerof University of Wisconsin, Madison.
• Moenjodaro : a 5,000 year old legacy - by Khurshid Hasan Shaikh and Syed M. Ashfaque [pdf]

Time Line
Based on the archeological exploration done in the last few decades, our knowledge about the civilisation has significantly improved. The time period has significantly expanded going back to 7000 BC for first sign of agriculture and coming forward to 1300 BC for the last occupation of the cities.

• Start of Agriculture 7000 BC to 5500 BC
  
• Early Harappan phase 5500 BC to 2600 BC
• Mature Harappan phase 2600 BC to 1900 BC
• Late Harappan phase 1900 BC to 1300 BC

Mehrgarh is earliest known agricultural site of this civilisation. It dates back to 7000 BC. There are also evidences of the use of cotton. Somewhere between 2600 and 2000 BC, the city seems to have been largely abandoned.

• Rice being a staple food in Mehrgarh - A report of the lecture of Jean Francois Jarrige, Director of the Musee Guimet, Paris
• Prehistoric dentistry evidence has been found in Mehrgarh - A BBC report
  
• Wikipedia on Mehrgarh

Harappa is one of the largest and most important cities of the Indus Valley Civilization. This is one of the only sites where an entire sequence has been recovered that spans the history of Indus cities. The overall size of the city was over 150 hectares. Current evidence suggests that Harappa was occupied till 1300 BC.

• Images of Harappa
• Dr. Meadow of the Zooarchaeology Laboratory at the Peabody Museum, Harvard University and Dr. Jonathan Mark Kenoyerof University of Wisconsin, Madison has been engaged in the recent excavasion. Report on their recent discoveries (1998-2000)
• Wikipedia on Harappa

Mahenjo-daro had a population between 35,000 and 80,000 and occupies an area over 250 hectares. At its peak it could have been the largest city in the world.

• Images of Mahenjo-daro
• Dr. Jonathan Mark Kenoyerof University of Wisconsin, Madison has been engaged in the recent excavasion. His article on Mahenjo-daro
• Wikipedia on Mahenjo-daro

Lothal had the earliest known dock found in the world, equipped to berth and service ships. It spans an area of 37 meters from east to west and nearly 22 meters from north to south. Boats could dock at Lothal in the 1850's. In 1942 timber was brought from Baruch to nearby Sagarwala. It is said that then the dockyard could hold 30 ships of 60 tons each or 60 ships of 30 tons each. This would be comparable to the modern docks at Vishakapatnam.

• Some pictures of Lothal
• Wikipedia on Lothal

Dholavira has a rectangular shape and organization, and is spread over 100 hectares. One of the unique features of Dholavira is the sophisticated water conservation system of channels and reservoirs, the earliest found anywhere in the world, and of which three are exposed. Another of the most dramatic discoveries at Dholavira was made in one of the side rooms of the northern gateway of the city. The Harappans had arranged and set pieces of gypsum (a kind of mineral) to form ten large letters on a big wooden board. At some point of time the board fell down flat on its face. The wood decayed, but the arrangement of the letters survived.

• A interesting computer graphics reconstruction of Dholavira
• Article on Dholavira published in Time, 1997
• Wikipedia on Dholavira

Manufacturing and Trading

The Mystery of the Harappan Seal
Thousands of Indus seals have been recovered from Harappan sites since the discovery of this culture. Most of these objects were made of steatite in a general square shape and a perforated boss on the back. The Indus seals are the finest exemplifications of Harappan plastic art and are best recognized for their calligraphy and most realistic rendering of animal characters. The typical Indus stamp seal is a square or rectangular of about 2 to 3 centimetres on a side. The most common character on the seal is the so-called unicorn and the long horned bull. The large quantities of seals collected at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa do in a sense reinforce the thought that these two cities were the major administrative and redistributive centres. The great number of seals from Lothal reinforces in its turn the argument that this site worked as a major transport centre. All other Indus sites, including Allahdino, Kalibangan, and Chanhudaro have revealed appreciably smaller quantities.

The probability that the seals in first hand were applied for commerce cannot be ignored. It is suggested by evidence such as cotton fabric bearing a seal once impressed with an Indus stamp from Iraq as well as the wide distribution of them in contexts associated with commerce. The rather wide distribution of them outside Indus borders become quite interesting.

Was it some form of money?

• Some pictures of seals
• A detailed discussion on this topic by Kanwal Qadri, Uppsala University, Sweden (see page 38 to 47)[pdf]

Uniqueness of this Civilisation

1. Harappan civilisation was the largest of the ancient civilisation. It was probably as large as Mesoposemia and Egypt put together.
   • Map of the world showing early civilisations
2. The level of urban planning achieved was probably not matched anywhere in the world for another 2000 years.
   • Urban Planning - Lower Town
   • Urban Planning - Citadel
3. Earliest use of cotton.
   • Some of the evidences of use of textile - slide 114, 115, 116
4. Use of fired bricks with most scientific size of 1:2:4.
   • Picture of the brick
5. Standardisation of weights and measures across the civilisation.
6. Earliest dock.
7. Absence of any large ceremonial building, palace.
8. Extensive trading network.