CHRONOLOGY

CHRONOLOGY

Scholars call the period 3500-2600 BC as the early Harappan period because they believe that this was the formative epoch of the Harappan civilisation when certain trends of cultural unification were in evidence.

Mundigak in Southern Afghanistan, apparently located on a trade route, grew into a large township. A palace, a temple, a variety of pottery, the use of naturalistic deco­ration, terracotta female figurines and semi-precious stones as Lapis Lazuli and Steatite have been found. At Damb Sadaat in Quetta valley, large houses having brick walls belonging to the beginning of the third millennium Be have been discovered. People of the central and southern Baluchistan sites like Anjira, Togou, Nindowari and Balakot were using similar kinds of pottery showing distinct influ~ ences from both the Persian-Gulf towns and the Indus Valley towns.

By the middle of the fourth millennium Be, the Indus alluvial plains became the focal point of change. The banks of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra saw the emergence of many settlements. People of Amri in the Sind province lived in houses of stone and mud brick, constructed a granary of sorts, and painted animal motifs as the humped Indian bull on their f0ttery which was wheel-made. People of Kot Diji, opposite Mohenjo-daro, had a massive defensive wall built around their settlement. They also used a wheel­thrown pottery having decorations of plain bands of dark brownish paint, a variety found along the entire stretch of River Indus, where Harappan settlements have been re­ported. At Rahman Dheri, an Early Indus township has
. been excavated. Oblong in shape, with houses, streets and lanes laid out in a planned fashion, it is protected by a massive wall. Beads of turquoise and lapis lazuli point totheir contact with Central Asia.

At Kalibangan, in north Rajasthan, a remarkable find was that of a ploughed field surface, suggesting that even at this stage the cultivators knew about the plough. People lived in houses of standard mud bricks, which had' a rampart around a settlement.

Thus over a period of nearly three thousand years, cultivators colonised the alluvial plains of the Indus using tools of copper, bronze and stone, as well as the plouj and wheeled transport. These people reared cattle, we shipped terracotta mother goddesses and the homed dei some even surrounding their settlements with defensi' walls. All these developments were taking place in tI context of a much larger network of relationships with tI civilisations of Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia. It was in tI backdrop of these processes of technological and ideologic unification that the Harappan civilisation emerged.

The increasingly efficient technology and the exploit tion of the fertile plains of the Indus must have dramatical improved grain production. This would have led to a larg\ surplus and an increase in population. At the same tim trading links with distant communities must have beE established by the richer section of society seeking t possess rare goods. The larger surpluses would also perm the elaboration of non-farming specialisation in metallurg pottery and priesthood. The existence of many agricultur. groups and pastoral nomadic communities in close conta. with each other must have led to conflict among them. . appears that among the various competing communities i the Indus region, one set of people established their POWI over the others. This signalled the beginning of the 'Matw Harappan' phase, a phase that was to dominate the nortl west for the next 700 to 800 years.

It is called the Harappan Civilisation after a conventio in archaeology that when an ancient culture is describec it is named after the modem name of the site which fin revealed the existence of this culture. However, since th term gives the erroneous impression that the civilisatiol began in Harappa, not everyone has accepted it. Th discovery of sites away from the river valley promptec archaeologists to use the term 'Indus Civilisation', since th. other areas were also in the parallel systems of the rive]