Archaeological Sources of Harappan Civilization
The Harappan civilization is one of the most important civilizations of the world since the ancient times. It was first excavated briefly by Alexander Cunningham in the year 1872 and 1873. However, the first excavations that were extensive were started by Rai Bahadur Dayaram Sahani in the year 1920. There have been different archaeological findings and analysis done by various researchers who worked on the articles that they found about the excavation regarding Harappan civilization and Indus valley civilization. Not only that but also the excavations extensively proved the fact that how rich the civilizations war. South Asia is well known for the civilizations from the ancient times and the kinds of different archaeological documentations that it provided to the researchers to analyse about. There have been various other researchers who have questioned the civilizations as well. In this assignment we will discuss about questions that are connected to the rise and fall of the Indus valley civilization and Harappan civilization (Sameer & Zhang, 2018). Every civilization has reasons for their rise and fall and that can be analysed extensively by the analysis of the articles in remains found about the civilizations let me talk about. In this assignment the archaeological sources of Harappan civilization will be analysed to find out the answer for the question regarding the rise and fall of the civilization.
Talking about archaeological sources of Harappan civilization there have been different kinds of sources that were found which had connection to the Harappan civilization. Not only that but also the archaeological sources extensively talked about how the lifestyle of the people wore and how the cultural legacies of Indus valley civilization prevailed at that point of time (Bhat, 2017). It was one of the most unique civilizations that we’re talking about and there can be different kinds of perspectives that were brought about by different researchers through the analysis of different articles they performed as remains.
The major archaeological sources that can be found about Harappan civilization all the remains of the Harappan civilization are the evidences and articles (Singh, 2019). While studying and analysing the remains of the Harappan civilization it can be seen that how modern the archaeological and architectural designs board when it came to the structures of the civilization.
Architectural Remains
The kind of drainage system that can be found in the Harappan civilization that just remains now says a lot about the urban kind of infrastructure that the people believed in.
- In the ancient time at that point of time during the 2600 BCE the civilization hack urban centres. It was located near the Indus River and drainage system also played an important role in the development of the civilization from an architectural point of development and view (Tripathi. 2018).
- However, Harappan civilization was famous in the southern Asian continent and one of the major parts of the Harappan civilization was Mohenjo Daro it can be seen that there were citadels in most of the places and the central area of the cities were heavily fortified and they also had a defensive military to protect the city.
- As the cities were situated near the Indus River there were excellent and brilliant drainage system that were built by the people of the civilizations (Duttet al. 2019).
- Hence it can be seen how this acts as one of the major reasons for the rise of the civilization and for becoming one of the most well-known civilizations of the entire world.
Taking into consideration all the remains that were found by the researchers and scientists, they notice one of the major things in the Indus valley civilization where the system of switch structure.
- The bricks that were made Harappan civilization further constructions were actually fire baked and that retains lot of moisture and becomes uniform in size (Danino, 2020).
- Using these bricks made sure that the monuments of the houses build were much stronger than those which were not baked by fire.
- It was also seen as evidence that the civilization had a system of standardised weights and measures.
- Taking into consideration the amount of effort these people put into the system development of their civilization was huge.
- In the ancient times during the 2600 BCE, it was nearly impossible to even imagine about standardised weights and measures that would help the people to understand the weight of things and to use them in the trade system that they had (Dumka et al. 2019).
- In addition to all the structural concepts and evidence that were found about the Harappan civilization there were artistic and cultural evidence also which were found out by the researchers and the people who analysed about the situation of the civilization when it was in its full form.
- The art and culture off the civilization talk majorly about carving on objects for using them as stamping full stop they used to have different kinds of animals decorated on stones and other objects that were actually converted into fields that were used for trading and business.
- In addition to all the archaeological sources it can also be said that they involved themselves in a vast maritime and we’re culturally inclined what’s functions (Rao, 2019). Evidence have been found that they celebrated shell working and shells were used in that crafts which is said to have come from Oman.
- The Harappan civilization also indulged into forming transport systems on their own and they made wheels as one of the major discoveries of the world and use them in cartwheels or oxcarts that helped them in travelling from one place to another.
- The discoveries made by various extensive researchers and archaeologists talk about the fact that there were candles and docking facilities in the coastal city of Lothal which indicates that the Harappan civilization people also used boats for their transportation (Khan& Sinha, 2019).
There were many reasons that were found in the Harappan civilization that acted as the reasons for their rise and fall. As already talked about the reasons of the rise of the civilization it can be said that the archaeological evidence found by the researchers and analysed accordingly were evidence of how they built their cities and how well that was constructed on the basis of drainage system and sewage system. Similarly, there were also reasons that acted for the fall of Harappan civilisation. One of the major reasons being the climate change that took a toll on the civilization and the people living within it. If the history is taken into consideration can be seen that one of the major events that took a toll on the civilization was the flood that occurred in Mohenjo Daro. Not only that but also there were reasons of climate change that did not let the civilization flourish and it lost its charm and vanished in the ruins. As analysed by Dr. Nishant Malik from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York State it can be seen that he had applied the new theory that talked about monsoon rainfall in the region for the over pause 5700 years. He also talked about a model that dynamically systemises the value climate data for instance which provides the pattern of monsoon that followed in the region. This was one of the major reasons why the Harappan civilization fell. Play
- In the ancient times having a thought process to build up a civilisation with such architectural urban systems give in to the fact that it acted as a reason for the rise of the civilization.
- Seal making acted as one of the major reasons why the faith system got developed during the Harappan civilization. People were very much inclined towards training and business that helped them in developing themselves as a civilisation altogether (Singh, 2022).
- In addition to all the trading evidence that were collected by the excavations that happened few of them were the seals that they made by carving images of objects and animals on stones to make them seals which would be used as stamp application for trade and property.
- It was from the ancient times that people were very much intellectually involved in understanding how business worked and trading worked and hence they put in the extra effort to maintain the balance between trading and life (Alok, 2016).
- All these organised methods of using seals and coins and metal that came from Gujarat where one of the major reasons why the civilization gains so much popularity.
- One of the major reasons for the fall of Harappan civilization was the change in climate (Singh et al. 2021).
- Terrific amount of rain and monsoon that the regions experienced was huge and horrific at the same time. The amount of monsoon that the places saw was such that it actually drowned the entire civilization.
- Mohenjo Daro was known as the number of dead men in the year 2600 BCE because of the fact that how these rains and systematic changes of the climate actually became one of the major reasons for the downfall of the civilizations (PATIL, 2019).
- There were many unresolved mysteries of how the civilization vanished nonetheless it can be seen in some evidence how the systems of the urban sanitation and systems of the architectural development were still prevailing.
- Still remaining the major impact of the monsoon, the failure of the civilizations took place. It was also one of the major graphic events in the history how Mohenjo Daro became the mount of dead men which was rediscovered much later than the time when it actually happened (Naveed et al. 2016).
Reasons for Rise and Fall of Harappan Civilization
All these evidence gathered in the favour of the rise and fall of the civilizations gives the overview of how the Civilization got hampered in many ways. Civilization did not only get hampered but also raised to the popularity of being one of the most famous and well-known civilizations of the world due to the facts of the urban thinking and construction of drainage systems and houses should also be considered (Prabhakar, 2016). In addition to all the facts regarding the archaeological and architectural evidence it can also be seen how the Harappan civilization and the people residing within it were involved in trading and business and work upfront about the facts that it was one of the major reasons why the civilization flourished. However, the fall was major for the Harappan civilization and climate change was one of the major reasons that took a toll on the civilization in many ways (Singh, 2017). The floods and the fact that the civilization was right beside the Indus River play the important role in the understanding of the fact how the monsoon actually had a chance in taking a toll on the civilization and vanishing it forever.
Conclusion
Summing up the entire discussion about the archaeological methods that the archaeologists used in the analysis of Harappan civilization and the rise and fall of the civilization it can be seen that there were many techniques such as analysing the evidence that were found and seeing the resources in a way which gave an overview of the civilization in a better manner. Not only that but also summing up the reasons of the rise and fall it can also be said that one of the major reasons of the fall of Harappan civilization was the climate change that occurred. The climate change led to the heavy monsoons and hence flooding the entire area. Harappan civilization was one of the most important and well-known civilizations of the world after the Mesopotamia civilization and the Columbian civilization. However, it took a toll on the majority of the citizens of civilization when the monsoon occurred. However, if the reasons for the rise of the civilization is taken into consideration it can be said that the reasons behind the civilization being so upfront was that the people were intellectually modern even in the ancient times. The urban architecture gives an overview to the researchers of how intellectually intelligent these people were. Not only that but also the use of seals as apart of trade and property was one of the major reasons why the civilization is still remembered to this day. Trading was made important by the civilization and newer techniques were involved in that process.
References
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