Periodisation of the Indus Valley Civilisation facts for kids

The Indus Valley Civilisation was a huge and ancient civilization in South Asia. To understand its long history, experts divide it into different time periods. Think of it like chapters in a book, each showing a different part of its story.

Archaeologists like Mortimer Wheeler first split the Indus Valley Civilisation into Early, Mature, and Late Harappan times. But newer ways of dividing the history also include even older farming villages. They often mix ideas from different systems to get a clearer picture.

How We Divide the Indus Valley History

The most common way to talk about the Indus Valley Civilisation is by calling its phases Early, Mature, and Late Harappan. Before this great civilization, there were smaller farming villages. People moved to the river plains when they learned how to manage water. This helped create the big, connected civilization we know. This whole long period is sometimes called the Indus Age or the Indus Tradition.

Early, Mature, and Late Harappan Phases

Early explorers, like Sir Aurel Stein, found many old sites in Balochistan. At first, people thought the cultures in Sindh and Baluchistan moved to the Indus Valley to start the civilization.

But later, M.R. Mughal found older settlements in the Cholistan Desert. This showed that the civilization grew right there. M.R. Mughal was the one who came up with the name Early Harappan. This way of dividing history mostly looks at big cities like Harappa and Mohenjo Daro, seeing how they changed over time.

Some experts, like Coningham and Young, say this way of dividing history is "limited." They feel it focuses too much on the "Mature" (or peak) phase.

Shaffer's Harappan Tradition Eras

Archaeologists often use a system like the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age to sort past societies. But this system doesn't always show how people and cultures really connected and changed.

To help with this, archaeologists Jim G. Shaffer and Diane Liechtenstein created a new system for the Greater Indus Valley. Shaffer studied how local customs in South Asia changed and adapted. He noticed that old ideas about the past were sometimes influenced by colonial views.

So, Shaffer created a system called the Harappan Tradition. He named it after the site of Harappa. This "Tradition" means a long-lasting way of life, including basic tools and how societies were set up, over a long time and in a certain area.

Shaffer divided the Indus Valley Tradition into four main "Eras":

• The Early Food Producing Era
• The Regionalisation Era
• The Integration Era
• The Localisation Era

These Eras roughly match the Early, Mature, and Late Harappan phases. Each Era can also have smaller "phases." Shaffer believed there were many differences in various regions. He said these Eras and phases don't always follow a strict step-by-step evolution everywhere.

Coningham and Young noted that Shaffer's system helped include sites like Mehrgarh, which were important ancestors to the Indus cities, within the larger Indus story.

Understanding the Eras

• The Early Food Producing Era (around 7000-5500 BCE) is also called the Neolithic period. During this time, people started farming and producing their own food in the Indus Valley. Mehrgarh Period I is part of this era.
• The Regionalisation Era (around 4000-2500/2300 BCE) includes the Early Harappan phase. A big change in this period was people moving from the hills of Baluchistan to the flat plains of the Indus Valley. This era was very creative, with new crafts being invented. Important phases in this era include Balakot, Amri, Hakra, and Kot Diji.
• The Integration Era is the time of the "Indus Valley civilisation" at its peak. It's when many smaller cultures came together to form one large, connected civilization.
• The Localisation Era (1900-1300 BCE) is the last period of the Indus Valley Tradition. It shows the civilization starting to break apart into smaller, local cultures. This era has several phases:

* Punjab Phase (like Cemetery H, Late Harappan). * Jhukar Phase (found at Mohenjo-daro and sites in Sindh). * Rangpur Phase (found in Kachchh, Saurashtra, and Gujarat). * The Pirak Phase is also part of this era.

Possehl's Indus Age Stages

Gregory Possehl also included the Neolithic period in his system, calling the whole long time "Indus Age." He divided it into seven stages:

• Beginnings of Village Farming Communities
• Developed Village Farming Communities
• Early Harappan
• Transition from Early Harappan to Mature Harappan
• Mature Harappan
• Posturban Harappan
• Early Iron Age of Northern India and Pakistan

Some experts, like Coningham and Young, point out that Possehl's system mixes old terms (like Mature Harappan) with new ideas about how societies changed.

Rita Wright's Framework

Rita Wright used a system similar to Shaffer's. She looked at the Indus Valley through ideas from Mesopotamia (another ancient civilization). She used terms like Early Food Producing Phase, Pre-Urban Phase, Urban Phase, and Post-Urban Phase.

Comparing the Time Periods

Here's a simple way to see how these different ways of dividing time compare:

The Integration Era, or the Mature Harappan Phase, is generally agreed to be from 2600 to 1900 BCE. This was the time when the Indus Valley Civilisation was at its most powerful and widespread.

Indus Valley and Later Indian History

Experts like Jonathan M. Kenoyer and Coningham & Young also look at how the Indus Valley Civilisation connects to later periods in Indian history. After the Indus civilization declined, there was a time of new regional changes. This eventually led to the "Second Urbanisation" in India, starting around 600 BCE, which included empires like the Maurya Empire.

Some scholars used to think there was a big break between the Indus Civilization and later Indian history. But Coningham & Young suggest using Shaffer's "Eras" to better understand how these periods are linked. They believe that a stage of "Integration" (where cultures come together) happened in India as early as 600 BCE, not just with the Mauryan period.

They also note that the term "Integration Era" might not fit all of South Asia during the Mature Harappan time. This is because the Indus Civilization was a regional feature, and many parts of northern and southern South Asia were not directly affected by it.

See also

• Bhirrana
• Iron Age in India
• History of India