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Harappa () is an archaeological site in Punjab, Pakistan, about west of Sahiwal, that takes its name from a modern village near the former course of the Ravi River. The Ravi now runs to the north.
The city of Harappa is believed to have had as many as 23,500 residents and occupied about with clay brick houses at its greatest extent during the Mature Harappan phase (2600 BC – 1900 BC), which is considered large for its time.
The ancient city of Harappa was heavily damaged under British rule when bricks from the ruins were used as track ballast to construct the Lahore–Multan Railway. The current village of Harappa is less than from the ancient site. Although modern Harappa has a legacy railway station from the Raj period, it is a small crossroads town of 15,000 people today. In 2004, the site was added to the tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In 2005, a controversial amusement park scheme at the site was abandoned when builders unearthed many archaeological artefacts during the early stages of building work.
Due to falling sea-levels, certain regions were abandoned during the late Harappan period. In its later stages, the Harappan civilization lost features such as writing and hydraulic engineering. As a result, the Ganges Valley settlement gained prominence and Ganges' cities developed.
The earliest recognisably Harappan sites date to 3500 BC. This early phase lasts till around 2600 BC. The civilization's mature phase lasted from 2600 BC to 2000 BC. This is when the great cities were at their height. Then, from around 2000 BC, there was a steady disintegration that lasted till 1400 BC – what is usually called Late Harappan. There is no sign that the Harappan cities were laid waste by invaders. The evidence strongly points to natural causes. A number of studies show that the area which is today the Thar Desert was once far wetter and that the climate gradually became drier.
The weights and measures of the Indus Valley Civilisation, on the other hand, were highly standardised, and conformed to a set scale of gradations. Distinctive seals were used, among other applications, perhaps for the identification of property and shipment of goods. Although copper and bronze were in use, iron was not yet employed. "Cotton was woven and dyed for clothing; wheat, rice, and a variety of vegetables and fruits were Agriculture; and a number of animals, including the Zebu, was Domestication," as well as "fighting cock". Wheel-made pottery—some of it adorned with animal and geometric motifs—has been found in profusion at all the major Indus sites. A centralised administration for each city, though not the whole civilisation, has been inferred from the revealed cultural uniformity; however, it remains uncertain whether authority lay with a commercial oligarchy. Harappans had many trade routes along the Indus River that went as far as the Persian Gulf, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. Some of the most valuable things traded were carnelian and lapis lazuli.
What is clear is that Harappan society was not entirely peaceful, with the human skeletal remains demonstrating some of the highest rates of injury (15.5%) found in South Asian prehistory. Examinations of Harappan skeletons have often found wounds that are likely to have been inflicted in battle. Paleopathological analysis demonstrated that leprosy and tuberculosis were present at Harappa, with the highest prevalence of both disease and trauma present in the skeletons from Area G (an ossuary located south-east of the city walls). Furthermore, rates of craniofacial trauma and infection increased through time demonstrating that the civilisation collapsed amid illness and injury. The bioarchaeologists who examined the remains have suggested that the combined evidence for differences in mortuary treatment and epidemiology indicate that some individuals and communities at Harappa were excluded from access to basic resources like health and safety.
Period 1 occupation was thought to be around 7 to 10 hectares, but following excavations and findings of pottery in Mound E, along with previously found Mound AB pottery, suggest Ravi/Hakra phase would have been extended, together in both mounds, to 25 hectares.Kenoyer, J. M., (June 6, 2023). "Indus Socio-Economic, Political and Ideological Organization", in ARWA Association, min. 5:48 to 6:41, "Period 1 Ravi/Hakra Phase, area greater than 10 to 25+ hectares, possibly divided into two mounds, one to the north, Mound AB and the other to the southeast, Mound E."
Period 2, Kot Diji phase, was extended in the same two mounds, AB and E, covering over 27 hectares.Kenoyer, J. M., (June 6, 2023). "Indus Socio-Economic, Political and Ideological Organization", in ARWA Association, min. 8:04 to 9:30.
In Period 3, Harappa phase, the settlement reached 150 hectares.
By far the most exquisite and obscure artefacts unearthed to date are the small, square steatite (soapstone) seals engraved with human or animal motifs. A large number of seals have been found at such sites as Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. Many bear pictographic inscriptions generally thought to be a form of writing or script. Despite the efforts of philologists from all parts of the world and the use of modern cryptography, the Indus script remain undeciphered. It is also unknown if they reflect proto-Dravidian or other non-Vedic period language(s). The ascribing of Indus Valley Civilisation iconography and epigraphy to historically known cultures is extremely problematic, in part due to the rather tenuous archaeological evidence for such claims, as well as the projection of modern South Asian political concerns onto the archaeological record of the area.
The area of the late Harappan period consisted of the areas of the Daimabad, Maharashtra, and Badakhshan regions of Afghanistan. The area covered by this civilisation would have been very large with a distance of around .
In February 2006, a school teacher in the village of Sembian-Kandiyur in Tamil Nadu, discovered a stone celt (tool) with an inscription estimated to be up to 3,500 years old. Indian epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan postulated that the four signs were in the Indus script and called the find "the greatest archaeological discovery of a century in Tamil Nadu". Based on this evidence, he went on to suggest that the language used in the Indus Valley was of Dravidian origin. However, the absence of a Bronze Age in South India, contrasted with the knowledge of bronze making techniques in the Indus Valley cultures, calls into question the validity of this hypothesis.
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