Major Harappan sites have brought to light excellent evidence of planning and layout of habitation. There is a similarity between all the major Harappan settlements as far as town planning is concerned. In most of the Harappan sites, a Citadel and Lower Town have been discovered. However, the site of Dholavira, is an exception which…
The largest Harappan site in India is Rakhigarhi in Haryana. It is located in the Hisar district and is as big as the site of Harappa (in present-day Pakistan). It is located in the Ghaggar-Hakra river plain. Rakhigarhi is supposed to be one of the oldest Harappan sites in the world. Eleven excavation mounds have…
There were several types of houses in the Lower Town. Some houses were big, while others were smaller in size. There were single room tenements which were meant for the common people. Some houses were large and were equipped with courtyards and big rooms. They also had private wells and toilets. These houses were meant…
John Marshall Indian archaeologist, who was the Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) named John Marshall discovered Mohenjodaro in 1924.
The houses at Kalibangan had a unique pattern of construction. The houses had a courtyard with rooms along its three sides and an entrance in the fourth. The entrance was wide. A bullock cart could also enter the house through the entrance. The cooking was usually done in the open courtyard. This was done in…
The Harappan civilisation did not exist in isolation. There were a few other important civilisations which existed at the same time period. These were the Mesopotamian civilisation (present-day Iraq), the Egyptian civilisation, and the Chinese civilisation. The Harappans had trade links with all these contemporary civilisations. In terms of geographical extent, the Harappan civilisation was…
The socio-economic differences in the Harappan society were traced on the basis of studying the burial systems and the luxuries possessed by different groups. In the Harappan society there was a general tradition that the dead people were buried in the pits. Some of the pits was also filled with pottery and other ornaments. The…
The most important building material that was used by the Harappans to construct their structures were sun-dried or burnt bricks. These bricks were made in moulds of standardised ratios. Baked bricks were used abundantly in Harappa and Mohenjodaro as well as in other settlements of the civilisation. Apart from bricks, mud mortar and gypsum were…
In most ancient cities, water was retrieved from a central well or river. People usually dumped their wastes into open drainages or ditches. Only the rich and affluent had separate bathrooms. In contrast to this, the people of the Indus Valley civilisation developed a very advanced system of plumbing. In Mohenjodaro, almost every household had…