Prehistory and the Harappan Civilisation

Stone Age cultures

Age	Rough period	Features	Key sites
Lower Palaeolithic	up to c. 1,00,000 years ago	Hand axes, cleavers; hunting and gathering	Soan valley (Pakistan), Attirampakkam (Tamil Nadu), Hunsgi (Karnataka), Belan valley (UP)
Middle Palaeolithic	c. 1,00,000–40,000 years ago	Flake tools, scrapers	Narmada valley, Nevasa (Maharashtra)
Upper Palaeolithic	c. 40,000–10,000 years ago	Blades, burins; Homo sapiens; cave art begins	Bhimbetka (MP), Belan
Mesolithic	c. 10,000–6,000 BCE	Microliths; early domestication of animals	Bagor (Rajasthan), Adamgarh (MP), Sarai Nahar Rai (UP)
Neolithic	c. 7000 BCE onwards (regional)	Polished stone tools, farming, pottery, settled life	Mehrgarh (Balochistan, c. 7000 BCE), Burzahom and Gufkral (Kashmir, pit dwellings), Chirand (Bihar, bone tools), Koldihwa (rice, UP), Maski, Brahmagiri
Chalcolithic	c. 2500–1000 BCE	Copper with stone tools; painted pottery	Ahar–Banas (Rajasthan), Kayatha, Malwa culture, Jorwe (Maharashtra), Inamgaon, Navdatoli

Bhimbetka (near Bhopal) has rock shelters with paintings of animals, hunting and dancing. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Harappan (Indus Valley) Civilisation

• Discovery: Harappa was excavated by Daya Ram Sahni in 1921 and Mohenjodaro by R. D. Banerji in 1922, under John Marshall, the Director-General of the ASI.
• Dates: the mature phase was c. 2600–1900 BCE. It was a Bronze Age urban culture.
• Extent: from Sutkagen Dor (Balochistan) in the west to Alamgirpur (UP) in the east, and from Manda (Jammu) in the north to Daimabad (Maharashtra) in the south. It was the largest of the early civilisations by area.

Important sites

Site	Location / river	Notable finds
Harappa	Punjab (Pakistan), Ravi	Granaries, R-37 cemetery, working floors
Mohenjodaro	Sindh, Indus	Great Bath, great granary, assembly hall, bronze dancing girl, "priest-king", Pashupati seal
Chanhudaro	Sindh	Bead-making factory; the only city without a citadel
Lothal	Gujarat, Bhogava	Dockyard, rice husk, fire altars, bead factory
Kalibangan	Rajasthan, Ghaggar	Ploughed field, fire altars, wooden furrow
Dholavira	Gujarat, Rann of Kutch	Water reservoirs, signboard of ten large signs, three-part town; UNESCO site (2021)
Banawali	Haryana	Clay model of a plough, barley
Rakhigarhi	Haryana	Probably the largest Harappan site in India; DNA study (2019)
Surkotada	Gujarat	Horse bones (disputed)
Ropar	Punjab, Sutlej	Dog buried with a man

Town planning

• Cities were laid out on a grid with roads cutting at right angles.
• Most had a citadel (raised western part, with public buildings) and a lower town (houses).
• Standardised burnt bricks in the ratio 1:2:4.
• Covered drains ran along streets. Houses had wells and bathrooms.
• There were no temples or grand palaces.

Economy

• Agriculture: wheat, barley, peas, sesame, cotton. The Harappans were the first to grow cotton (the Greeks called it sindon). Rice is found at Lothal and Rangpur.
• Animals: cattle, sheep, goats and buffalo were domesticated. The horse is not clearly attested.
• Crafts: beads, bronze casting, pottery (red with black designs), seals of steatite.
• Trade: with Mesopotamia, where Sumerian texts call the region "Meluhha"; Harappan seals are found there. Standard weights in binary multiples were used. There was no coinage, so trade was by barter.

Religion and society

• Mother goddess figurines.
• The "Pashupati" seal shows a horned figure surrounded by animals (proto-Shiva, according to Marshall).
• Phallus and yoni stones, tree worship (pipal) and animal worship (the humped bull and the unicorn on seals).
• Fire altars at Kalibangan and Lothal.
• Burial of the dead was the main practice.

Script

The script is pictographic, with about 400 signs. It was written from right to left, and in places in boustrophedon (alternating direction). It is still undeciphered.

Decline (c. 1900 BCE onwards)

There are several theories:

• climate change and drying of the Ghaggar–Hakra (Saraswati);
• floods and shifting rivers;
• decline of trade with Mesopotamia;
• ecological strain.

The old Aryan invasion theory (Mortimer Wheeler) has been largely given up. The cities declined gradually and gave way to rural, late-Harappan cultures.

Exam tip: Questions usually pair a site with a find or a river. Make a three-column list (site, state or river, unique find) and revise it twice. Bihar students: Chirand (Saran) is the Neolithic site to remember. Senuwar (Rohtas) is another.