![\"Map](\"http:\/\/media.ccconline.org\/ccco\/2020Master\/HIS111\/eText\/Images\/25.png\")
\r\nThe Indian subcontinent is where Indian civilization took shape. But that civilization was not created by one people, race, or ethnic group, and it doesn\u2019t make sense to see India\u2019s history as the history of one Indian people. Rather, the history of this region was shaped by a multitude of ethnic groups who spoke many different languages and lived and moved about on a diverse terrain suited to many different kinds of livelihood.\r\nThe Harrapan Civilization, c. 2600 \u2013 1700 BCE<\/h2>\r\n![\"Figure](\"http:\/\/media.ccconline.org\/ccco\/2020Master\/HIS111\/eText\/Images\/26.png\")
\r\nOur knowledge of the ancient world has been radically altered by impressive archaeological discoveries over the last two centuries. Prior to the twentieth century, for instance, historians believed that India\u2019s history began in the second millennium BCE, when a people known as Indo-Aryans migrated into the Indian subcontinent and created a new civilization. Yet, even during the nineteenth century British explorers and officials were curious about brick mounds dotting the landscape of northwest India, where Pakistan is today. A large one was located in a village named Harappa. A British army engineer, Sir Alexander Cunningham, sensed its importance because he also found other artifacts among the bricks, such as a seal with an inscription. He was, therefore, quite dismayed that railway contractors were pilfering these bricks for ballast. When he became the director of Great Britain\u2019s Archaeological Survey in 1872, he ordered protection for these ruins. But the excavation of Harappa did not begin until 1920, and neither the Archaeological Survey nor Indian archaeologists understood their significance until this time. Harappa, it turned out, was an ancient city dating back to the third millennium BCE, and only one part of a much larger civilization sprawling over northwest India. With the discovery of this lost civilization, the timeline for India\u2019s history was pushed back over one thousand years.\r\n\r\n![\"Map](\"http:\/\/media.ccconline.org\/ccco\/2020Master\/HIS111\/eText\/Images\/27.png\")
\r\nThe Indus Valley, (or Harrapan) civilization (2600 \u2013 1700 BCE) now stands at the beginning of India\u2019s long history. Much like the states of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, the foundations for that history were established by Paleolithic foragers who migrated to and populated the region, and then Neolithic agriculturalists who settled into villages. During the third millennium BCE, building on these foundations, urban centers emerged along the Indus River, along with other elements that contribute to making a civilization.\r\n\r\nThe ruins of Indus cities dating from 2600 BCE suggest a vibrant society thriving in competently planned and managed urban areas. Some of the principal purposes of these urban settlements included coordinating the distribution of local surplus resources, obtaining desired goods from more distant places, and turning raw materials into commodities for trade. These urban centers were conveniently built amidst an abundance of resources: fertile flood plains for agriculture, pasture for grazing domesticated animals, and waters for fishing and fowling. The city itself consisted of several mounds\u2014elevated areas upon which structures and roads were built. A larger mound served as a core, fortified area where public functions likely took place. It contained a wall and large buildings, including what archaeologists call a Great Bath and Great Hall. Other mounds were the location of the residential and commercial sectors of the city. Major avenues laid out on a grid created city blocks. Within a block, multistory dwellings opening up to interior courtyards were constructed out of mudbricks or bricks baked in kilns. Particular attention was paid to public sanitation. Residences not only had private wells and baths, but also toilets drained by earthenware pipes that ushered the sewage into covered drains located under the streets.\r\n\r\nArtifacts tell of city life. Farmers and pastoralists brought their grain and stock to the city for trade or to place it in warehouses managed by the authorities. Laborers dug the wells and collected trash from rectangular bins sitting beneath rubbish chutes. Craftsmen worked copper and tin into bronze tools, fired ceramics, and manufactured jewelry and beads out of gold, copper, semi-precious stones, and ivory. Merchants travelling near and far carried raw materials and finished goods by bullock carts or boats to the dozens of towns and cities throughout the region.\r\n\r\n![\"Figure](\"http:\/\/media.ccconline.org\/ccco\/2020Master\/HIS111\/eText\/Images\/28.png\")
![\"Figure](\"http:\/\/media.ccconline.org\/ccco\/2020Master\/HIS111\/eText\/Images\/29.png\")
The Harrapan culture thrived in the area for several centuries, leaving behind a\u00a0language written on the seals and copper tablets.\u00a0Unfortunately,\u00a0\u00a0scholars have been unable to decipher this language.\u00a0What we can determine from the evidence is that the cities of the Harappan were highly developed for their time period. They practiced a thriving agricultural and trade-based economy using the numerous rivers surrounding them to their advantage.\r\n\r\nThe Harappan civilization was quite large, extending across an area twice as large as ancient Egypt or Sumer, but we know that they somehow were able to share their knowledge across this vast distance because archeological evidence has found uniformity in building practices, art and in other endeavors from one end of the civilization to the other.\r\n
\r\nKey Questions<\/h3>\r\n