In the Indus valley, after the first Neolithic settlements in the early 3rd millennium BC, a civilization arose that in the light of the excavated remains of houses, granaries, and fortification walls can clearly be called urban. The building material was sun - and oven-baked clay, as it was in Mesopotamia. The short specimens of writing, found mainly on seals from the 3rd millennium BC, are as yet undeciphered. This region must have been connected commercially along the coast of Iran and through the Persian Gulf with Mesopotamia as well as with other cultures across land routes to the north and northwest. To this were added influences from farther east, from where the knowledge of rice growing must have reached the Indus area. In its turn, this Indus civilization doubtless bequeathed a legacy, especially, we may assume, in the realm of religion, to other and later Indian civilizations. But as long as the script of the Indus valley remains undeciphered, much will rest uncertain. In the early 2nd millennium BC, this civilization decayed and its remains would finally be destroyed around 1500 BC. Probably, a major role in this was played by the immigrants who would later be known as Indo-Aryans, arriving in the Indian subcontinent from the northwest, possibly in a steady infiltration of small groups in the course of the 2nd millennium BC.
In Southeast Asia, in the course of the 4th millennium BC, the first sedentary societies had appeared based on the growing of rice. Bronze production of a surprisingly high level made its appearance here rather suddenly around 1500 BC. A connection with the metallurgy of the Near East seems out of the question. But the step toward an urban civilization was not made here for another 1500 years or more.
World History
