India’s Cultural Hearths

Reminder: �What is a Cultural Hearth?

• A cultural hearth is a region where such things as religion, the use of iron tools and weapons, highly organized social structures, and the development agriculture started and then spread from.

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• The Indus River Valley region of NW India/SE Pakistan is considered a major cultural hearth for this part of the world.

The Indus River winds past the Thar Desert in the middle of the picture. The highlands to the west and the Himalaya Mountains to the north surround the Indus Valley.

Farmers still grow crops in fields beside the Indus River. Notice how the water from the river keeps the crops green.

Farming along the Indus River

Farming along the Indus River

Two Civilizations

• In ancient times about 2600 BC, there were more than 1,000 towns along the Indus River in present-day Pakistan
• The two largest areas of civilization in ancient India were Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.
• Huge area of ancient India and Pakistan

Computer-generated model of an ancient Indus Valley village

• Depended on agriculture – wheat, barley, dates, vegetables
• Used irrigation
• Traded with Southern India and Mesopotamia
• Wanted raw materials to make pottery, stamps, and statues.

Trading in the Indus River Valley

The Mystery of the Clay Stamps

• The symbols on the clay stamps cannot be understood.
• Why?
• No one has ever been able to break the symbols’ code and translate them.
• The language is not related to any known language on earth today.
• No one is exactly sure what the clay stamps were used for.

HARAPPA

• May have had as many as 40,000 residents
• Skilled artisans
• Used wheeled vehicles
• Had social classes in their society
• Excellent city planners

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Carts like the ones found in ancient Harappa are still being used in the region today.

Found in ancient Harappa.

Harappan houses were made of brick. Sewers ran under the city streets.

• In Harappa, the houses were all built with manufactured baked bricks and had excellent drainage systems. Every house had a well. Streets were wide and were connected at 90 degree angles.
• Some cities had a citadel set high in the city on a mound. In the citadel were bigger buildings. Perhaps the city's rulers lived there.
• Most people lived and worked in the lower part of town.

Houses were large, with rooms for living and working.

Open areas in the center allowed for rain collection and a cool visiting area for guests. Houses also had indoor toilets.

Harappa’s Citadel – Great Baths and Great Granary

MOHENJO-DARO

• Mohenjo-daro likely had 35,000 residents at its height, and was about one square mile in size.
• It was a well planned city with perhaps one of the earliest urban sanitation systems.
• Buildings included houses, granaries, baths, as well as assembly halls, and towers used as forts.
• By around 1900 BC, the city had been abandoned, possibly due to war or climate change in the region.

Granaries at Mohenjo-Daro

(Artist’s drawing) Granaries could have been used to store grain; however, no “remains” of grain have been found. It also could have been used for public events or religious purposes. No one knows for sure.

 Large quantities of manufacturing debris have been found in this area. This shows the presence of workshops for making stone beads, shell ornaments, glazed pottery, and stone tools.�

Covered sewage system under the city streets which were straight and met at 90 degree angles.

The Great Bath at Mohenjo-Daro

Mohenjo-Daro public buildings

Narrow streets and alleys branch off of the major streets, leading into more private neighborhoods.

Many of the brick houses were two stories high, with thick walls and high ceilings to keep the rooms cool in the hot summers.

Houses and public buildings seemed to be large with many rooms.

Bangles made from the shells of sea animals. Indus people wore bangles on their arms.

An artist's impression of an Indus city scene. People worked hard to keep their cities prosperous.

The people of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa grew wheat, rice, mustard, peas and

sesame seeds, dates and cotton. Fruits such as grapes and melons were also plentiful.

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They had dogs, cats, camels, sheep, pigs, goats, water buffaloes, elephants and chickens. Cows provided milk and meat.

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A copper hair pin, a small pot with an eye-dropper (for eye-medicine), and a polished metal mirror.

Pakistani farmer plows his field in much the same way as ancient farmers.

So What Happened?

• No one knows for sure what happened to these civilizations.
• By 1700 BC, the civilizations had all but vanished.
• One cause may have been a shift in the Indus River.
• Flooding could have wiped out the fields.
• Building dams upstream could have caused droughts.

• Another suspected cause is a decline in rainfall.

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• Whatever the cause, agriculture declined and people abandoned their cities in search of food.

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• Knowledge of the Mohenjo-daro and Harappa civilization died – until archaeologists discovered the civilization in the mid-19th century.