#indus civilization

[agenticareveluv]

This is probably the most beautiful thing I have even drawn

[arjuna-vallabha]

Artistic representation of Indus Civilization merchants

[historical-nonfiction]

Ancient Dairy Farmers Powered Indus Civilization?

A major component of maintaining the advanced societies of the ancient Indus River Valley may have been their development of dairy farming. Recent isotope analysis of lipid residues from ceramics at Kotada Bhadli show that dairy products were common by around 2,500 BCE.

This is the earliest evidence of dairy products in India. Domesticated cows and water buffalo can produce surplus milk and cheese, enriching the nutrition of the locals. And what the locals did not eat, they could have exchanged with other cities,

[archaeologicalnews]

Mystery Solved: How the Ancient Indus Civilization Survived Without Rivers

Almost 5,000 years ago, a civilization developed in what is today northwest India and Pakistan, rivaling Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt in scope. The people of the Indus civilization farmed everything from cotton to dates, and eventually established at least five major cities with basic indoor plumbing and public sewage systems.

A few of these cities, including the famed sites of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, sit along major glacier-fed rivers. But the bulk of the Bronze Age Indus villages that have been found so far sit far from flowing water, north of the Thar Desert and between the Ganges-Yamuna and the Indus river systems. As early as the late 1800s, archaeologists and geologists noted a dry paleo channel, like an old riverbed, which ran through many of these settlements. The assumption was that the settlements first grew alongside the river, and then dried up when the river did.

Now, new research reveals that this old story is entirely wrong. In fact, the river that once filled the dry channel dried up more than 3,000 years before the heyday of the Indus civilization. Read more.

[scinerds]

Dramatic new discoveries illuminate the lost Indus civilization

This urban society in South Asia survived a weather apocalypse 4,000 years ago.

The Indus civilization is one of the great mysteries of the ancient world. An urban society, it was made up of hundreds of cities and towns that stretched across what are today northern India and Pakistan. Though its inhabitants left great art and elaborate water infrastructures behind, we know almost nothing about the Indus people who lived between 3,000 and 1300 BCE. In fact, we still haven't even deciphered their written language.

But now, the results of a new long-term study of the northwestern Indus region have given us a new understanding of how this civilization functioned. We've also gotten hints about how the civilization coped with dramatic climate change from ever-changing weather patterns.

An international team with the Land, Water, and Settlement project in northwest India studied Indus settlements in that region between 2007 and 2014, looking at everything from water systems and plant remains to art and pottery. What they found has overturned conventional wisdom about who the Indus people were and how they lived. Now they've published a treasure trove of new findings about local centers in the Indus civilization in Current Anthropology.

[arjuna-vallabha]

Indus Valley Etched Carnelian Pendant Necklace, c. 13th-14th century BCE

[arjuna-vallabha]

Indus Valley/Harappan necklace

[arjuna-vallabha]

Indus Valley/Harappan necklace