An Ancient Communist Utopia? The Indus Valley Civilization
487,826
Published 2021-01-30
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Thumbnail by Ettore Mazza:
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Thanks to Anna from The Dirt for doing the voiceovers!
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Disclaimer: Use my videos as a rough guide to a topic. I am not an expert, I may get things wrong. This is why I always post my sources so you can critique my work and verify things for yourselves. Of course I aim to be as accurate as possible which is why you will only find reputable sources in my videos. Secondly, information is always subject to changes as new information is uncovered by archaeologists.
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Sources:
1 - Cork, Edward. “Peaceful Harappans? Reviewing the Evidence for the Absence of Warfare in the Indus Civilisation of North-West India and Pakistan (c. 2500-1900 BC).” Antiquity, vol. 79, no. 304, 2005, pp. 411–423., doi:10.1017/s0003598x0011419x.
2 - Possehl, Gregory L. The Indus Civilization: a Contemporary Perspective. Vistaar Publications, 2009.
3 - CONINGHAM, ROBIN. ARCHAEOLOGY OF SOUTH ASIA: from the Indus to Asoka, C.6500 Bce-200 Ce. CAMBRIDGE UNIV Press, 2018.
4 - McIntosh, Jane. A Peaceful Realm the Rise and Fall of the Indus Civilization. Westview Press, 2001.
5 - Jansen, M., 1994. Mohenjo-daro, type site of the earliest urbanization process in South Asia: ten years of research at Mohenjo-daro, Pakistan, and an attempt at synopsis, in A. Parpola and P. Koskikallio (eds), South
Asian Archaeology 1993. Helsinki:Suomalainen Tiedeaketemia, 263-280.
6 - Petersen, M. C., Aggressive architecture: fortification of the Indus valley in the mature Harappan phase. PhD thesis, Leiden University, 2012, p. 77.
7 - Nigam, R., et al. “Ancient Indians (Harappan Settlement) Were Aware of Tsunami/Storm Protection Measures:A New Interpretation of Thick Walls at Dholavira, Gujarat, India.” Current Science, vol. 111, no. 12, 2016, p. 2040., doi:10.18520/cs/v111/i12/2040-2043.
8 - www.harappa.com/blog/surkotada-gujarat
9 - www.harappa.com/slide/priest-king-mohenjo-daro
10 - Vidale, Massimo. “A ‘Priest King’ at Shahr-i Sokhta?” Archaeological Research in Asia, vol. 15, 2018, pp. 110–115., doi:10.1016/j.ara.2017.12.001.
11 - Prabhakar, V. N. “Decorated Carnelian Beads from the Indus Civilization Site of Dholavira (Great Rann of Kachchha, Gujarat).” Walking with the Unicorn: Social Organization and Material Culture in Ancient South Asia, 2018, pp. 475–485., doi:10.2307/j.ctv19vbgkc.35.
12 - Green, Adam S. “Killing the Priest-King: Addressing Egalitarianism in the Indus Civilization.” Journal of Archaeological Research, 2020, doi:10.1007/s10814-020-09147-9.
13 - Rissman, Paul. “Public Displays and Private Values: A Guide to Buried Wealth in Harappan Archaeology.” World Archaeology, vol. 20, no. 2, 1988, pp. 209–228., doi:10.1080/00438243.1988.9980068.
14 - Frenez, Dennys. “Private Person or Public Persona?” Walking with the Unicorn: Social Organization and Material Culture in Ancient South Asia, 2018, pp. 166–193., doi:10.2307/j.ctv19vbgkc.16.
15 - Rao, Rajesh P. N. “The Indus Script and Economics.” Walking with the Unicorn: Social Organization and Material Culture in Ancient South Asia, 2018, pp. 518–525., doi:10.2307/j.ctv19vbgkc.38.
16 - Wankowski, Jacek. “The Distribution and Role of Harappan ‘Headdress’ Figurines and Harappan Socio-Political Organisation.”
17 - Frayne, Douglas R. Sargonic and Gutian Periods: 2334-2113 BC. Univ. of Toronto Press, 1993.
18 - Schug, Gwen Robbins, et al. “A Peaceful Realm? Trauma and Social Differentiation at Harappa.” International Journal of Paleopathology, vol. 2, no. 2-3, 2012, pp. 136–147., doi:10.1016/j.ijpp.2012.09.012.
19 - Lee, Hyejin, et al. “Traumatic Injury in a Cranium Found at Rakhigarhi Cemetery of Harappan Civilization as Anthropological Evidence of Interpersonal Violence.” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, vol. 23, 2019, pp. 362–367., doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.11.001
All Comments (21)
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Ok fine I'll change the thumbnail. I'm still throwing some Cyrillic in there though! Just correctly this time.
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Imagine being the leader of your civilization but staying humble and living in the same houses as everyone else, then 5000 years later some guy with a spoon roasts you for only having 70 pots
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As an Indian my first instinct is that walls and weapons are needed in this subcontinent for protection against dangerous animals which were abundant. Weapons may have been needed for hunting also. I have no idea if the civilization fought wars but they had to tackle wild animals for sure and this included rhinos, elephants and wild cats (tigers/lions). Maybe that aspect deserves recognition in the narrative which otherwise seems presumed. But in any case thanks for this. Excellent work.
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I’m 68 years old now and every time I’ve seen the image of the “priest-king” since I was a kid I wondered how they came to that conclusion if there is no decipherment of the script and no markings on the statue, I’m so glad you’ve brought this issue up. It reminds me of how all anomalous artifacts discovered are , or used to be, claimed as religious for absolutely no good reason.
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What I'm getting from this video is that either they were egalitarian, or they had strict hierarchies/a ruling class which functioned so differently from what we're used to seeing that we can't even recognise it as such. Either way, it's cool how unusual it is.
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Imagine working really hard with Bronze Age tools on a big wall to protect your village and being really proud of it, just for a bunch of nerds a few thousand years later to say it couldn’t possibly have been built to keep out enemies
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Before the Mayan language was translated there was a school of thought that they lived in perfect peace and harmony. The inscriptions pretty much killed that idea.
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I just emailed this to myself scheduled a year from now. As a sociologist and soon to be economist, you convinced me that fallen civilizations are worth researching. Thanks!
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I am from central area of india called vidharbha when I saw the teracota toy of Indus velly civilization I realised I used play with same shape of teracota toy , even we have a festival named pola where we make bull and chariot of teracota and go each house for gift and toffies . Even our jewelry also look very similar to indius velly civilization .
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Maybe they built the bastions to bash the water over the head with rocks!
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I love the fact that he not only holds a microphone....but also goes through the trouble of holding the spoon. That is dedication. 🥄
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There were two burial styles mentioned in Rig Ved; one is the burial in the ground, and the other is with Fire God ( cremation ). That can be why you find a mismatch between no. of graves and population size.
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There could actually be only 88 burials at one site because those buried were foreigners who happened to die in the city, for whom burial was their custom. The natives may have been very thoroughly cremated.
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This is the longest, most interesting "eh maybe" I've ever heard
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The Indus valley civilization is most underrated civilization in the world. The structured town plan with multistory buildings and proper drainage plan and street plan comparable to 18th century cities is uncomparable to any other 4000 years ago. It was a proper urban civilization,even Egypt with its massive pyramids was nowhere close to Indus valley civilization.
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the 18m thick wall is definitely built for another purpose, with defense just a bonus. 18m is much thicker than a medieval castle wall, and can withstand cannon shots before they even have siege weapons. Also, lacking a ruler whose ambition is to boss around other rulers could reduce the number of wars they fought (among each other), given how many wars in history can be boiled down to "king A wants more stuff from king B"
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Maybe 70 pots in a grave could mean he/she had 70 friends and family members who brought something to use in the afterlife, where the other person with 30, only had 30 friends/family member who brought gifts to the departed. Kind of like somebody now days slipping something in the coffin to be buried with them. Just thinking, what would I do?
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A peaceful civilization would still need walls and weapons for defence, especially when surrounded by violent neighbors
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Indus Elite: "I've been buried with 70 pots, I'm incredibly rich." Chinese Emperor: "Slacker."
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War and hierarchy has been a staple of human civilization for a very long time, but cooperation and sharing are even older. We wouldn't have the numbers to fight wars if we didn't grow, and we can't grow without sharing and cooperating.
