THE FIRST CITIES AND ITS
CIVILIZATIONS
A civilization makes a city and it is large and densely populated
area. Cities are also known as urban
areas. When and more people start moving from villages to towns and cities, the
process is called urbanization. Urbanization
is one of the key features of civilization. There are some famous civilizations which lived in this world and they had left very valuable things which are at another level.
THE INDUS VALLEY
CIVILIZATION
The Indus Valley Civilization was an ancient civilization. The Chalcolithic Age was followed by the Bronze Age. In the Bronze Age
people started using bronze. About 4700 years ago, the largest Bronze Age civilization
in the world emerged in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent. Since
this culture was born in the valley of the Indus River, it came to be known as
the Indus Valley civilization. The Harappan
culture (as the Indus civilization was also known) was the largest of the
ancient civilisations. It was spread over 650000 sq.km, which is more than
twice the area of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilisations.
This civilization stretched eastward from the current border of Iran to
areas beyond Delhi, and it stretched southward till the Godavari River. More than
1400 Indus civilization sites have been discovered to date, and more continue
to be discovered. Of these the more important ones include Mohenjodaro, Harappa and Mehrgarh (all three in Pakistan), Dholavira
and Lothal in Gujarat, Rakhigarhi and Banawali in Haryana, Ropar in Punjab,
Kalibangan in Rajasthan, and Alamgirpur in Uttar Pradesh.
Excavations at sites like Mehrgarh, in Pakistan, show that this civilization
evolved gradually from village communities around 7000 to 5000 BCE. It reached
a highly developed phase from 2600 to 1900 BCE. The cities of Mohenjodaro,
Harappa and Dholavira flourished during this phase.
Town planning
The most striking feature of the Indus civilization was the well-planned
nature of its cities. Most of our knowledge of the Indus cities is based on
excavations at Mohenjodaro and Harappa. They proved that the ancient times technology was very advanced. They customize their work at top level.
Like most of the Indus towns, Mohenjodaro was a grid planned city, i.e.
all the streets cut each other at right angles. It was divided into two parts. One
part was at a higher level. It was built on a massive platform constructed of
baked brick. Archaeologists call this area the citadel or acropolis. It
might have been the administrative centre of the city where all the large
public buildings were located. The lower part of the city consisted of the
houses of the common people.
THE GREAT BATH
Within the citadel at Mohenjodaro, archaeologists found a structure that they called the Great Bath. This was a rectangular tank made of fired bricks closely fitted together. This tank was made waterproof by a 3 cm thick layer of bitumen (tar). Fights of steps from opposite sides led to the bottom of the tank. There were several rooms along the other two sides of the tank. In one of the rooms there was a large well, from which water was supplied to the tank. Used or dirty water was drained out through an outlet to a brick drain. Archaeologists are not sure what this structure was used for. It might have been used by the people of the city to have a bath before attending important functions and ceremonies.
This shows that they were very sensitive about beauty and they had the curiosity that how can they develop their art of beauty.
 |
THE GRANARY
To the west of the bath, a massive brick platform has been excavated. The
shape and size of this structure suggests that it might have been a granary. A large
granary has been excavated at Harappa too.
RESIDENTIAL AREA
In the town area, away from the citadel, platforms were built for
houses. These platforms enabled houses in the city to be built above the flood
level. Most of the houses were plain and uniform in plan; the rooms of each
house were arranged around a courtyard. Each house had a single entrance and
one of every three houses had a well too. Many houses had a separate bathing
area as well. Some of the houses were double storied.
DRAINAGE
As the houses were built, a careful drainage system was laid out. The drains
in houses invariably led to a cess-pool or manhole. The drains along the main
roads were covered and were inspected and cleaned regularly. The drainage system
of the Indus cities stands out as remarkable among the cities of the world at
that time.
Were there rulers in
these cities?
The Indus cities were well planned, with straight roads, walled citadels
and well-maintained drains, which definitely means that there was a high
standard of administration. Unfortunately, till the script of the Indus civilization
is deciphered, we can hardly say anything about the nature of the government in
the Indus cities.
What did the people
eat?
The Indus Civilization makes their own food. They know how to cultivate crops. A number of crops were cultivated – cereals like wheat and barley,
pulses, oilseeds like mustard and sesame, and millets like bajra, ragi and
jowar. Remains of these crops have been found from the excavated sites. We do
not find much evidence of the cultivation of rice. Fish, meat, milk, date and
fruit were also a part of the diet. This is so amazing that they had developed themselves to feed their family in a proper way.
What did they wear?
They wear clothes, ornaments and some of the culture is also followed by the present civilization. They discovered all those things to make their live style comfortable. Archaeologists have found evidence of cotton and woven cloth. Spindles made
of clay have been found in many sites. (Spindles are used to spin cotton
thread). Men wore flowing lengths of cloths, while the women wore skirts, as
can be seen from various figurines found in the sites. Both the men and the
women seem to have draped a shawl over their shoulders.
Both men and women wore ornaments made of gold, silver, faience, and
beads of semi-precious stones like jade, lapis lazuli, cornelian and agate. Bangles,
earrings and necklaces seem to have been popular.
The women used kajal for their
eyes and painted their lips, as they do even today.
Did they know to write?
We know that the ancient times people also maintain their communication by various sign language. But, it is a very good mark that the people of the Indus civilization had developed a form of writing. This
was one of the world’s earliest known scripts. Writing was in the form of brief
inscriptions found mainly on seals of different materials like clay, baked clay
and steatite (i.e. soap stone). Archaeologists reveal that the writing is
usually from right to left. Unfortunately, the script has not been deciphered
so far. But if we can decipher the writings, it will give us a lot of information about their communication, their secrets etc.
Metallurgy
The Indus people alloyed copper and tin to make bronze, which was more
malleable and stronger than copper. Knives, axes and chisels were made of
stone. Copper tools like razors, hooks, sickles and axes were also made, and so
were smaller copper tools like nails and needles. They had no knowledge of
iron, but they developed themselves without discovering ir
Pottery
Besides agriculture, probably the most popular occupation was pot
making. A variety of pots, both plain and decorated, have been found. Many pots
were painted red, with designs in black suggesting geometric patterns. They developed themselves in various forms of art. The pots they had made in ancient times shows their creativity and their curiosity.
Art and craft
Two finely sculpted works of art were recovered from Mohenjodaro. One is the bust of the bearded man who has his robe thrown over one shoulder, similar to what one finds in Mesopotamia. The other is that of the famed ‘dancing girl’ in bronze. Many terracotta figures of animals, carts, toys and human figures were recovered from the sites. Some of the toys had parts which moved, for example, bulls and rams that could shake their heads and tails. There are toy birds which can move up and down ropes. Such toys are made in the villages of India even today.
Seals
Many seals have been found in the Indus Valley, mainly made of steatite. Most of them show figures of animals, with writing on the top portion. Most of them are square in shape, a few round and some cylindrical. The sealings were used in ancient times for trade. They would be made on ceramics or the clay tags used to seal the rope around bundles of goods.
Weights and measures
At several of the Indus Valley cities, cube-shaped stone measures of
weight in graduated sizes have been found. The smallest weight found is 0.856 g
and the most common weight is approximately 13.7 g. Remarkably, they seem to be
uniform throughout the Indus territory. These weights may be used to make trade
easier.
Religion
Seals representing a male figure sitting in the form of a yogi, a figure like a mother goddess and pipal trees tell us little about the faith of the people. They may have worshipped Pasupati, an early form of Shiva, and mother goddesses. Evidence of burial practices has been found at cemeteries at Harappa, Lothal and a few other sites. The dead were buried wearing ornaments and with a few pots.
Trade
The people of the Indus civilization had established a flourishing
system of tread – both by land and by sea. The two large structures at Harappa
and Mohenjodaro, identified as granaries, suggest the storage of grains. The grains
probably came from villages. The villages may have traded the grain for some of
the goods produced in the cities. Besides roads, the Indus river system must
have been used for trade. Ornaments made in the Indus Valley have been found by
archaeologists in Mesopotamia, which suggests that there was trade between the
two civilizations. A dockyard found at Lothal also suggests the possibility of
overseas trade with western Asia.
The end of the Indus
civilization
This advanced civilization appears to have declined suddenly after 2000
BCE. Why it declined remains a puzzle, but a few reasons have been suggested.
The cities might have been destroyed by earthquakes or flood. Another factor
could be the falling quality of the soil due to excessive deforestation. Environmental
disasters like earthquakes might have caused rivers to change their course. The
resulting floods and droughts might have caused crops to fail, and spread
epidemics.
Over time, people would have moved away and the cities would have
crumbled.
Comments
Post a Comment