Table of Contents
The area of the Indus‑ or Harappa‑Culture, sometimes simply called the Harappa culture, takes its name from the modern site of Harappa, located on the Ravi River (a tributary of the Indus) in Punjab, Pakistan.
Location & Origins
The Indus-Valley region was settled for a very long time—there is evidence of human presence in the wider area for around 500,000 years.
One of the earliest village settlements known in the region is Mehrgarh (occupied since about 8,000 BCE). The city of Harappa (as we call it today) became prominent during the Bronze Age. Its heyday spanned roughly 2600 to 1900 BCE.
Urban Features & Society
Harappa was not a temple-city in the classic sense (like some Egyptian or Mesopotamian centres) but rather a residential and working city — emphasising housing, workshops, drainage systems and planning. The city layout typically had two major parts:
- A citadel area (elevated)
- A residential part (flattened) surrounded by or adjacent to the citadel.
Its construction: they used burnt bricks, unlike earlier mud-bricks found elsewhere in some cultures. There was a grid-pattern layout of streets, drainage systems, and water management features.
Economy, Trade & Craft
The people of Harappa had a well-developed craft economy:
- Production of pottery (including use of the potter's wheel) and textiles.
- Metalworking (copper, bronze) and jewelry making.
- Trade: Harappa was connected via trade networks that reached Mesopotamia and beyond.
- Standardized measures of length, weight and brick proportions point to organized administration and urban planning.
Religion & Thought
Exact beliefs of the Harappan people are still largely speculative, as no fully deciphered script or clear temple records exist. However, certain artifacts suggest:
- A reverence of certain animals (for example, cattle) which may have played a religious or symbolic role.
- Cultic motifs of fertility (female figures) and possibly phallic symbols.
Decline & Legacy
The decline of the Harappa culture remains somewhat mysterious. Evidence suggests a reduction in trade and possibly environmental change around 1800-1700 BCE. Today, Harappa is recognised as one of the major early urban civilisations—alongside Egypt and Mesopotamia—with millions of people at its peak and high-level craft and urban development.