Indus Valley Essay

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Indus Valley Extent of the Indus Valley The Indus Valley existed to the early to middle Bronze Age (3300–1300 BC). It consisted of what is now mainly Pakistan and northwest India. It primarily centered along Baluchistan, Sindh and Punjab region, extending into the Ghaggar-Hakra River valley with an upward reach to Rupar on the upper Sutlej and the Ganges-Yamuna Doab. The geography of the Indus Valley put the civilizations that arose there in a highly similar situation to those in Egypt and Peru, with rich agricultural lands being surrounded by highlands, desert, and ocean. Geographically, it was spread over an area of some 1,260,000 km², making it the largest ancient civilization in the world with a population of well over five million along with its contemporaries, Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. The Indus Valley Civilization has been tentatively identified and known from Sumerian records. It has been compared in particular with the civilizations of Elam (in the context of the Elamo-Dravidian hypothesis). The mature phase of Indus Valley Civilization is known as the Harappan Civilization (Harrapan 1), named after the nearby Ravi River, lasted from circa 3300 BCE until 2800 BCE, as the first of its cities to be unearthed was located at Harappa, excavated in the 1920s. Then the Kot Diji (Harappan 2) Phase, (2800-2600 BC), also known as Late phase was identified after find of Mohen jo Daro, in northern Sindh, Pakistan. Thus the entire IVC may be taken to have lasted from the 33rd to the 14th centuries BC. According to some archaeologists, about 100 sites have been discovered along the Indus and its tributaries. By 1931, much of Mohenjo-Daro had been excavated, but excavations continued in 1944. By 2600 BC the early Harappan communities turned to large urban centers like Harappa, Ganeriwala, Mohen jo-Daro. Excavated ruins of Mohen jo-daro, with the Great Bath in

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