The Obituary
The Harappan civilization was one of the three great cradles of urban life, alongside Mesopotamia and Egypt, and in some respects the most advanced of its time. Across the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra river basins it built planned cities like Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, with grid streets, brick houses, covered drains, and granaries — all without any sign of palaces or grand royal tombs. It traded with Mesopotamia and produced exquisite seals carved with an undeciphered script. From around 1900 BCE the cities declined, likely as monsoon patterns weakened and rivers shifted course, scattering the population eastward.
Worth remembering
- Its cities had standardized fired-brick housing, public baths, and some of the world's earliest urban sanitation.
- The Indus script, found on thousands of seals, has never been deciphered.
Sources
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.