The Indus civilization has challenged scholars' understanding since its discovery some eighty years ago, and in recent years the application of systematic and problem-orientated research, coupled with much new and unexpected data, has overturned many previous interpretations.
The early picture of the Indus civilization was largely based on what was revealed by excavations in the two great cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. Other cities have since been discovered and those at Dholavira and Rakhigarhi investigated; the known extent of the civilization has been greatly extended by discoveries in Gujarat, the Indo-Gangetic divide, and the Saraswati Valley; and there is now a greater knowledge of the diversity of Harappan culture. Nevertheless, data from Mohenjo-daro and Harappa still provide a large part of what is known about the civilization, reflecting their evident importance, and recent work in the cities, using many modern archaeological methods, has continued to advance knowledge and understanding of the civilization. The HARP excavations have established the chronology of development at Harappa, and the sequence of development is known at a few other sites, including Dholavira. However, developmental history within the Mature Harappan period as a whole is still little known.
The early concentration on towns and cities has been counterbalanced in recent decades by the investigation of a number of rural settlements, including specialist industrial villages such as Nageshwar. Field surveys, notably in Bahawalpur and Gujarat, have greatly advanced knowledge of the extent and diversity of Harappan settlement. Interdisciplinary studies, including ar-chaeobotany, zooarchaeology, and ethnoarchaeology, have yielded much new information, as have experiments, particularly those designed to investigate Harappan technology. Recent studies in other parts of the subcontinent and in adjacent Oman, Iran, and Afghanistan have broadened understanding of the context in which the Harappan civilization emerged, flourished, and declined.
These data still provide only partial answers to the major questions about the Harappan civilization: What brought about the development of civilization in the Indus region? Who ran the Harappan state, and why did it disintegrate?
World History
