AN ANCIENT INDIA INDUS VALLEY MOHENJO DARO POTTERY VESSEL, CIRCA 3000 BCE. With An Artistic Image of of Bulls,The Indus Valley civilization (Harappan Civilization) was rediscovered in 1920-21 when engraved seals were unearthed in thePunjab province of Pakistan at a site called Harappa, a name which is often used to describe the civilization as a whole. Subsequentexcavations at Harappa revealed the size and complexity of this ancient city. Other sites were unearthed as well along the banks ofthe Indus River, including the equally large city of Mohenjodaro. Through archaeological and historical research, we can now say forcertain that a highly developed urban civilization flourished in the Indian subcontinent over five thousand years ago. Though theIndus Valley script remains undeciphered, the numerous seals, statuary, and pottery discovered during excavations, not to mentionthe urban ruins, have enabled scholars to construct a reasonably plausible account of the Indus Valley civilization.Some kind ofcentralized state, and certainly fairly extensive town planning, is suggested by the layout of the great cities of Harappa andMohenjodaro. The same kind of burnt brick appears to have been used in the construction of buildings in cities that were severalhundred miles apart. The weights and measures also show a very considerable regularity, suggesting that these disparate citiesspread out across a vast desert shared a common culture. The Indus Valley people domesticated animals, and harvested variouscrops, such as cotton, sesame, peas, barley, and cotton. Indus Valley seals have been excavated in far away cities such as Sumer,suggesting that a wealthy merchant class existed, engaged in extensive trading throughout the subcontinent and the NearEast.Other than the archaeological ruins of Harappa and Mohenjodaro, these seals provide the most detailed clues about thecharacter of the Indus Valley people. Bulls and elephants appear on these seals, but the horned bull, most scholars agree, shouldnot be taken to be congruent with Nandi, for the horned bull appears in numerous Central Asian figures as well. The womenportrayed on the seals are shown with elaborate coiffures, sporting heavy jewelry, suggesting that the Indus Valley people were anurbane people with cultivated tastes and a refined aesthetic sensibility. A few thousand seals have been discovered in Indus Valleycities, showing some 400 pictographs: too few in number for the language to have been ideographic, and too many for the languageto have been phonetic.

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