Harappan architecture

Harapase Architecture or the Indus Valley Civilization Architecture is the architecture of the ancient people who lived in the Indus Valley roughly from 3300 BC to 1300 BC. The Harapas were quite advanced for their time, especially in architecture. The Indus Valley Civilization (QLI) was a civilization of the Bronze Age (3300-1300 BC; period of 2600 to 1900 BC) mainly in the northwestern part of South Asia , extending from what is today northern Afghanistan east to Pakistan and northwestern India . Together with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamus, it was one of the earliest three ancient civilizations of the Old World and one of the three most widespread. The desertification of this region during the millennium BC could have been the initial stimulus for urbanization associated with civilization, but also reduced water supply enough to cause the displacement of its population eastward. At its height, the Indus Valley’s civilization may have had a population of over five million people. Indus’s ancient lung residents developed new technology in crafts (carnelian products, engraved seals) and metallurgy (copper, bronze, lead and pale). The Indus cities are known for their urban planning, brick houses, elaborated dredging systems, water supply systems, and large piles of non-residential buildings. The Indus Valley’s civilization is also known as Harapas Civilization , according to Harapas , the first site excavated from the site of this civilization in the 1920s, then known as the Punjab province of Britain and now located in Pakistan. The discovery of Harapa and soon after it, Mohenjo-daros , was the crowning of the work begun in 1861 with the establishment of the Archaeological Survey of India in British India. The excavation of Harapa sites has continued since 1920 , with significant discoveries until 1999 . Earlier and later cultures, often referred to as early bourgeois cultures and late bourgeois cultures, in the same area of Harapas Civilization. Harapas Civilization has sometimes been called Harapase Maturity Culture to distinguish it from these cultures. By 1999 , over 1,056 cities and settlements were excavated, mainly in the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra region and their smaller branches. Among the settlements were the major urban centers of Harapas , Mohenjo-daros (UNESCO World Heritage Site), Dholavira, Ganeriwala in Cholistan and Rakhigarhi. The harp language is not directly proved and its family relation is unclear as Indus’s writing is still undecoded. Some scholars favor a relationship with the family of Dravidian or El-Dravidian languages.

Chronology
The Harapas Civilization Maturity Period lasted roughly from 2600 to 1900 BC With the inclusion of the forerunner and subsequent cultures – the Early and Late Harapase culture, respectively – the whole of the Indus Valley Civilization can be considered to last from the XXXIII century to that of of XIV BC. Early Harapase cultures are preceded by Mehrgarh (about 7,000-3300 BC) culture in Pakistani Balukistan. For the periodization of QLI (Civilization of the Indus Valley) two terms are used: Phase and Epoka . Early Stages, Maturation and Late Harapase are also called the Epochs of Regionalization, Integration and Localization, respectively, with the era of Regionalization that reaches the II Neolithic Period of Mehrgarh.

7000-5500 BC Mehrgarh I (Neolithic already ceramic)
5500-3300 BC Mehrgarh II-VI (Neolithic Pottery) The Age of Regionalization
3300-2800 BC Early Harapase Harapan 1 (Phase Ravi)
2800-2600 BC Harapan 2 (Phase Kot Diji, Nausharo I, Mehrgarh VII)
2600-2450 BC of Harapase Maturity (Indus Gate) Harapan 3A (Nausharo II) The era of Integration
2450-2200 BC Harapan 3B
2200-1900 BC Harapan 3C
1900-1700 BC Late Harapase (Cemetery H); Ceramic painted with ocher. Harapan 4 Age of Localization
1700-1300 BC Harapan 5
1300-300 BC Post-Harapan Painted gray ceramics, Black, glazed (Iron Age) Ceramics, Indo-Gangetic Tradition. Vedic Period, “Second Urbanization” (500-200 BC).

Early Civilization Harapas
Early Phase Harapase Ravi, named after the nearby Ravi River, lasted from 3300 BC to 2800 BC. It is associated with the Hakra Stage, identified with the Ghaggar-Hakra River valley in the west and earlier than Phase Kot Diji (2800-2600 BC, Harapas 2), named after a site in North Sindh in Pakistan near Mohenjo Daro -s. The earliest examples of Indus writing dates back to the III BCE millennium. The early age of early rural culture was represented by Rehman Dheri and Amri in Pakistan. Kot Diji represents the stage leading to the Harapase Maturation Period, with the fortress representing centralized authority and an increase in the quality of life. Another city of this phase was found at Kalibangan in India at the Hakra River. The trade network linked this culture to close regional cultures and remote sources of raw material, including lazuli lapis and other botanicals. By this time, the villagers used numerous plant products, including pears , sesame seeds, palm fruit and cotton, as well as animals, including the water buffalo. Harapase Early Communities returned to major urban centers around 2600 BC, where the Harapase Maturation phase began. Recent research shows that the people of the Indus Valley moved from villages to cities.

Harapase Maturity Period
About 2600 BCE, early Harapase communities returned to major urban centers. These urban centers include Harapan , Ganeriwala /, Mohenjo-daron in present-day Pakistan and Dholaviran, Kalibangan, Rakhigarh, Rupar and Lothal in present-day India. In total, more than 1,052 cities and settlements have been found, mainly in the general region of the Indus River and its branches.

The late fall of the late bush culture
About 1800 BC, signs of a gradual decline began to appear and around 1700 BC, most of the cities were abandoned. In 1953 , Sir Mortimer Wheeler proposed that the collapse of QLI was caused by the invasions of an Indo-European tribe from Central Asia called “Arjanë”. As evidence, he mentions a group of 37 skeletons found in various parts of Mohenjo-Daro and passages from the Vedas cited as battles and fortresses. However, researchers soon began to reject Wheeler’s theory, as the skeletons belonged to a period after the abandonment of the city and none were found near the Acropolis. Further Kenneth AR Kennedy skeleton examinations in 1994 showed that skull marks were caused by erosion and not by any violent attack. Today, many scholars believe that the collapse of Qyt in Lug of Indus was caused by drought and the collapse of trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia. The latest human skeleton reviews from the Harapa site prove that the end of Indus civilization was associated with an increase in inter-personal violence and infectious diseases such as leprosy and turbotomy. It has also been suggested that emigration of new peoples, deforestation, flooding, or changes in river flows may have contributed to the collapse of Qyt. to Lug. of Indus. Culture of the Cemetery was a manifestation of Late Harapase culture over a large area in the south and the ocher-colored ceramic culture, its successor. Earlier, it was believed that the collapse of Harapas civilization led to the demolition of urban life in the Indian subcontinent. However, the Lug of Indus Valley did not disappear unexpectedly and many of its elements can be found in later cultures that have been found. David Gordon White mentions three other prevailing thinkers who “have demonstrated with vigor” that the Vedic faith is partly leaked from the Qyt of the Lug of Indus. Current data suggests that material culture classified as Harapase’s later culture may have continued at least until the 1000-900 BC BC and was partially contemporary with the Gray Ceramics Culture. Harvard Archaeologist Richard Meadow shows the late Harapas settlement of Pirak, which flourished steadily from 1800 BC until the time of Alexander the Great invasion in 325 BCE . Recent archaeological excavations prove that Harapa’s fall led eastward residents. After 1900 BCE, the number of sites in India increases from 218 to 853. Gangetics plain excavations indicate that urban settlements began around 1200 BC, just a few centuries after Harapa’s fall and much earlier than previously thought. Archaeologists have emphasized that, just as in most areas of the world, there was a continuous series of cultural development. These link “the so-called two major stages of urbanization in southern Asia”. As a result of the collapse of QLI, regional cultures emerged, showing varying degrees of influence from Qyt. and Lug. of Indus. In the former Harapas big city, it was discovered that the tombs that were found match a regional culture called the Cemetery Culture. At the same time, the oak-colored Ceramics Culture stretched from Rajasthan to the Gang of Plateau. Culture of the Cemetery has the oldest evidence of cremation; a prevailing practice in today’s Hinduism .

Technology
People of Qyt. to Lug. of Indus achieved great precision in the measurement of length, mass and time. They were among the first to develop a uniform weight and mass system. A comparison of available objects shows a large degree of variation across the Indus territory. Their smallest division, which was scored on a ivory ruler found at Lothal of Gujarat, was approximately 1,704 mm, the smallest division ever recorded in a Bronze Age spinner. QLI engineers followed the decimals of measures for all practical purposes, including measuring the mass as evidenced by their hexagonal heights. These weights were in the ratio 5: 2: 1 with weights of 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 units, each weighing approximately 28 grams and smaller objects weighed a same report with units 0.871. However, as in other cultures, weights were not uniform throughout the area. The weights and measures later used in Arthashastra of Kautilya (IV century BC) are the same as those used in Lothal. Harapasses upgraded some new metallurgy technologies and produced copper, bronze, lead and tin. The blade harness skills were outstanding, especially in the construction of naval yards. A test piece carrying gold ribbons was found in Banawali, which was most likely used for gold purity testing (a technique still used in some parts of India).

Hydraulic engineering of the Indus QL
The Ancient Civilization of the Indus Valley in South Asia, including Pakistan and northwestern India , was remarkable in hydraulic engineering and water supply as well as sanitation and sanitation tools that were the first of their kind. Among other things, they have the world’s first known running water bath system. These existed in many homes and were linked to a common sewerage sewerage system. Most homes also had private water wells. The city walls functioned as a barrier against the flood of waters. The urban areas of Qyt Lug of Indus provided public and private baths, discharge channels were located on underground pipes constructed of brick tiles and a sophisticated water management system with multiple reservoirs. In the drainage system, sewerage from homes was linked to larger public sewerage. Lothal was a port on the Arabian Sea that had a shipyard.

Trade and Transport
Qyt’s economy. to Lug. Indus seems to depended significantly on trade, which was facilitated by the major advances in transport technology. QLI might have been the first civilization to use wheelchairs. These breakthroughs may have included throttle bars and boats. Most of these boats were likely to be small, with a flat bottom, perhaps moved by the veils; however, there is secondary evidence for sailing vessels. Archaeologists have discovered a massive dug channel and what they consider as a convenience in the form of a shipyard in the coastal city of Lothal in western India ( Gujarati state). A long channel network, used for irrigation, was found by H.-P. Francfort. During the 4300-3200 BC BC period, the Qyt. and Lug. Indus shows similarities in pottery with southern Turkmenistan and northern Iran which suggests considerable resilience and trade. During the Early Harapase Period (about 3200-2600 BC), the similarities in ceramics, seals, figurines, ornaments, etc. Document intensive trading caravans with Central Asia and Iranian plateau. Judging by the distribution of the artefacts of QLI, the commercial networks, economically integrated into a priceless area, including parts of Afghanistan , the coastal regions of Persia , northern and western India, and Mesopotamia . Dental surgeries by individuals buried in Harapa suggest that some residents had migrated to the city across the Indus valley. There is evidence that trade contacts were stretched to Crete and likely in Egypt. It had a large network of naval trade that operated between the Indus and Mesopotamian Civilizations since the middle bass phase, with a large share of the trade held by “middle-class Dilmun” ( Bahrain and modern Failaka situated in the Persian bay). This long-distance maritime trade was made possible by the innovative development of floating craft constructed of boards, equipped with a single central mast carrying a woven veil or garment. Many coastal settlements like Sotkagen-dor (river Dasht, north of Jiwan), Sokhta Koh (Shadi River, north of Pas-ni town) and Balakot (near Sonmiani) in Pakistan along with Lothal in India Western countries, testify to their role as trade facilitation of QLI The shallow shores found in the river deltas allowed livestock trade with the mesopotamian cities.

Cities
A sophisticated and technologically advanced culture is evident in Qyt Lug of Indus making them the first urban centers in the region. The quality of urban planning of cities suggests mastery of urban planning and qetita efficient governments that put a high priority on hygiene or the accessibility of religious rituals. As seen in Harapa, Mohenjo-Daro, and recently excavated in Rakhigarhi, this urban planning included the world’s first sanitation systems for public hygiene. Within the city, separate houses or groups of houses were taking water from the wells. From a room that seemed to be set aside for washing, the waste water was directed to drained drainage channels, stretching across the main streets. The houses were only open to inner courtyards and smaller alleys. Construction of houses in some villages in the region still resemble the Harapase aspects. The ancient sewage and drainage systems that were developed and used in cities across the Indus region were more advanced than any other found in contemporary urban sites in the Middle East. Harapase’s advanced architecture has been shown by naval yards, barns, warehouses, tile platforms and protective walls. The massive walls of the Indus cities were most likely to protect the bites from floods and could have avoided military conflicts. The purpose of the fortresses remains debated. In a profound change with contemporary civilizations, such as that of Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt , no major monumental structures were built. There is no conclusive information about the presence of palaces or temples-or kings, armies, and priests. Some structures are thought to have been barbed. A large well-built spa (“The Great Bath of Mohenjo-daro “) has been found in a city, which may have been a public bath. Although the fortresses of the city were walled, it was not possible to clarify whether these structures were defensive or not. They may have been built to avoid water spills. Most of the city’s residents seem to be merchants or craftsmen who lived with others by following the same profession in well-defined quarters. Materials from remote regions were used to create seals, stamps and other objects. Although some houses were larger than the others, the QLI cities were remarkable for their apparent, though relative relative equality. All homes had access to water and sewerage and drainage facilities. This gives the impression of a relatively less wealthy society, albeit seen as personal ornaments at different levels. The pre-history of Indo-Iranian border regions shows a steady increase over time and density of settlements. The population grew up in the Indus plains due to hunting and gathering fruits and plants.

Mohenjo-daro
Mohenjo-daro (Sindhi: موئن جو دڙو, Urdu: موئن جو دڑو), literally the hill of the dead ; is an archaeological site in the province of Sindh Pakistan . Built around 2500 BC, it was one of Qyt’s largest settlements. to Lug. Indus and one of the earliest urban major urban areas of the world, contemporary with the civilizations of Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Cretan Minority Civilization and Qyt. Norte Chico. Mohenjo-dare was abandoned in the twentieth century. of the nineteenth century BC after the fall of Qyt. to Lug. Indus and the site were not discovered until the 1920s. Significant excavations have been carried out since then and the city site has been proclaimed world heritage by UNESCO in 1980 . Currently the site is threatened by erosion and unmanageable restorations. Mohenjo-daro’s site is featured in the 20-rupean Pakistani banknote. Mohenjo-daro, the modern name of the site, has been interpreted in various ways as “The Puddle of the Dead” in Sindhs and as “Pirgu of Mohammed” (where Mohan is Krishna ). The origin of the name is unknown. Based on the analysis of a Mohenjo-daro’s stamp, Iravatham Mahadevan assumed that the old name of the city might have been Kukkutarma (“the city [ -rma ] of roses “]. The roar of war may have had a ritual and religious significance for the city, with smoked chickens for sacred purposes rather than as a source of food. Mohenjo-daro may have been a distribution point for overall poultry mitigation.

Harapa
Harapa ( Panjabi pronunciation: ɦəɽəppaː; urdu: ہڑپہا) is an archaeological site in Punjab , Pakistan, about 24 km west of Sahiwal. The site has been named after the modern village located near the former River Ravi. Harapa’s current village is 6 km from the ancient site. Although modern Harapa has a railway station inherited from the period of British rule, today it is only a small town at the 15,000-seat junction. The site of the ancient city contains ruins of a fortified city of the Bronze Age , which was part of the Culture of the Cemetery H and Qyt. to Lug. Indus, centered in the region of Sindh and Punjab . The city is believed to have had up to 23,500 residents and occupied about 150 hectares with muddy houses in its greatest extent during the Harapase Maturian phase (2600-1900 BC), which was considered great for his time. As an archaeological convention of naming an unknown ancient civilization from its first excavated site, the Indus Valley Civilization is also called Harapas Civilization. The ancient city of Harapa was severely damaged during British rule when bricks from the ruins were used as a pulley for the construction of Lahore-Multan Railroad. In 2005, a controversial playground scheme was abandoned when builders dumped into much archeological artifacts during the early stages of the works. A prayer by Pakistani archeologist Ahmad Hasan Dani to the Pakistan Ministry of Culture led to the rethinking of the site.

Dholavira
Dholavira is an archaeological site in Khadirbet in Bhachau Taluka, district of Kutch, in the state of Gujarat in western India, named after him from the modern village 1 km south of it. This village is 165 km from Radhanpuri . Also known by locals as Kotada timba , the site consists of ruins of the ancient city of Indus Valley Civilization. It is one of the five largest sites of this civilization and the most prominent archaeological site in India that belongs to Qyt. to Lug. of Indus. It is also considered to be the largest city of his time. Located on Khadir island betin the wildlife shelter in the Kutch Desert at Kann’s Great Rann. The complete site area is more than 100 ha. The site was inhabited roughly by 2650 BC, dropping slowly approximately after 2100 BC. It was briefly abandoned to be built roughly up to 1450 BC. Dholavira is located in Gujarat , India and has a series of water catchments and wells with scale as well as its water management system is called “unique.” Dholavira had at least five baths, the size of one of them is comparable to Mohenjo-daro’s Great Bath . The site was discovered in 1967- 1968 by JP Joshi, was the general director of the Archaeological Survey of India and is the fifth of the eight largest sites of LL Indus. It has been under excavation since 1990 by the Archaeological Survey of India, which thinks “Dholavira has in fact added new personality dimension to the Indus Valley Civilization”. Other major sites of Qyt. to Lug. of the Indus discovered so far are: Harapa , Mohenjo-daro , Ganeriwala, Rakhigarhi , Kalibangani , Rupnagari and Lothali .

Lothals
Lothali is one of the most prominent cities of the Indus Valley Civilization, located in the Bhal region of the current state of Gujarat and dating back to 3700 BC. Disclosed in 1954 , Lothal was excavated from February 13, 1955 to May 19, 1960 by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the official Indian government agency for the preservation of ancient monuments. The oldest shipyard of Lothal – the earliest known in the world – connected the city with an ancient stream of the Sabarmati River on the commercial road between the bourgeois towns of Sindhiand the Saurashtra Peninsula when today’s surrounding Kutch’s desert was part of the Arabian Sea. It was a vital and flourishing trade center in ancient times, with the trade of beads, precious stones and jewels reaching the far corners of Western Asia and Africa. The techniques and tools they used for the first time to make the beads and metallurgy have stood the test of time for over 4000 years. Lothali is located near the village of Saragwala in Dholka Taluka, district of Ahmedabad. It is six miles south-east of the Lothal-Bhurk railway station on the Ahmedabad-Bhavnagar railway line. It is also connected by roads to the cities of Ahmedabad (85 km), Bhavnagar, Rajkot and Dholka. The closest towns are Dholka and Bagodara. By resuming excavations in 1961 , archaeologists exposed sunken gaps in the northern, eastern and western side of the hillside, bringing inlets and nicheslinking the shipyard with the river. The findings consist of a tumul, a town, a market and a shipyard. Near the excavation site lies the Archaeological Museum, where some of the most prominent collections of Qyt period antiquities emerge. to Lug. of Indus.

Doku
Doku was far from the mainstream to avoid lymph deposits. It is assumed that Lothal engineers studied the tidal movement and their effects on brick-built structures, as the walls are brick-baked in the oven. This knowledge allowed them to choose the location of Lothar in the first place, as the Khambhat Bay has the largest tidal range and ships can be equipped with drifts through the flooding of the tidal streams of the river mouth. Engineers built a trapezoidal structure, with north-south wings averaging 21.8 m and wings east-west 37 m. Another calculation is that the basin may have served as an irrigation reservoir, for the estimated initial dimensions of the “dock” that are not large enough, to modern standards, to accommodate ships and to have a lot of traffic. The doctrinal criticism of the doctrine has increased since it was first questioned by Leshnik in 1968 and later by Yule in 1982 . The initial height of the embankment was 4.26 m. (It is now 3.35 m). The entrance is 12.8 m wide and the other one is on the opposite side. To cope with the thrust of water, they were set out on the outside of the wall. When the river changed its course in 2000 BC, a new, 7-by-inch nozzle became the longest arm, bounded by the river from a 2km channel. During the tide a flood of 2.1 to 2.4 m of water should allow the ships to enter. Measures were taken to extract the excess of water through the discharge channel, 96.5m wide and 1.7m high on the southern side. Doku also possessed a passage system in the enclosure-a wooden gate could sit in the discharge nozzle to hold a minimum water column at the basin in order to secure the plunging during the voyages. Central to the city’s economy, mega-zina was originally built in sixty-four cubic blocks, 3.6m square, 1.2m in length, and based on a 3.5m high clay brick podium. The podium was very high in order to provide maximum flood protection. Brick-lined crossings between the blocks served for airing and a staircase leading to the dock to facilitate loading and unloading. The ward was near the Acropolis, to allow strict supervision by the governing authorities. Despite the sophisticated measures, the great floods that led to the collapse of the city destroyed everything except for the twelve blocks, which became warehouse substitutes.

Kalibangani
Kalibangāni is a town located on the left or on the southern shore of Ghaggarit (Ghaggar-Hakra River), identified by some scholars with the Sarasvati River at Tehsil Pilibangān, between Suratgarh and Hanumāngarh in the district Hanumangarh of Rajasthan in India 205 km. from Bikaner. It is also identified as located in the triangle of land at the joining of the Drishadvati and Sarasvathi rivers. The pre-historic character and the pre-Mauryan of Qyt. Lug. Indus was first identified by Luigi Pio Tessitore in this site. The Calibangan excavation report was published in full in 2003from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), 34 years after the excavations were completed. The report concluded that Kalibangani was an important provincial center of Qyt. Lug. of Indus. Calibangani is distinguished by the altars of its unique fire and the earliest plugged earth that is known. The name Kalibangan translates to “black bracelets” (“Kālā”, in Punjabi language means black and “bangan” means bracelet). A few miles downstream is the railway station and the town called Pilibangā, which means yellow bracelets .

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