In the central portion of the Indus Valley, a plain of more than 1 million acres lies between the mountains to the west of the “Thar” desert to the east.

Twice a year, the river overflows its banks and spreads for as much as 10 miles. In March and April melting snow feeds the river’s sources in Pamir and Himalaya mountain ranges.

In August, the great monsoon blowing off the southwest brings rains that swell the streams flowing into the Indus.

Archaeologist have discovered remains of two great cities eighty years ago. They are referred today as “Harappa” and “Mohenjo-Daro”.

Harappa may have served as a “gateway” to the natural resources of the northwest, such as copper, tin, and precious stones.

Scholars assume that these people of this civilization were related to speakers of the Dravidian languages whose descendants were later pushed out of the north into central and southern India

Forces giving rise to the urbanization, population in crease, and technological advances that occurred in the mid-third millennium are unclear.

They had a system of writing. They used more than 400 signs to represent syllables and words. Usually found in stones and copper tablets. These documents have not been able to been deciphered and that limits us to get a picture of the society.

The cities had high, thick brick walls for protection. The streets were laid out in a rectangular grid pattern. Covered drainpipes carried away waste.

This may infer that they had a strong central authority. Various factors may account for the location of the chief centers,

and different centers may have had different functions.

There is greater abundance of metal in the Indus Valley than in Mesopotamia or Egypt.

Tools and other useful objects were found by archeologists. They had a widespread of trading contacts. They had ready access to

valuable resources found in eastern Iran and Afghanistan. These resources included metals (copper and tin), precious stones (lapis

lazuli, jade, and turquoise), building stone and timber.

Inhabitants of the Indus valley and of Mesopotamia obtained raw materials from some of the same sources.

Little is known about the political, social, economic, and religious structures of the Indus valley society.

Many believe in the theory of this civilization being very similar to the later Indian civilizations in terms of sociopolitical institutions, architectural forms, and religious beliefs and practice.

Their system of writing consists of more than

four hundred characters. We have not

been able to decipher it yet so it is only

viewed as a piece of art.

The cities were abandoned sometime after 1900 B.C.E. At first, archaeologists believed that they were invaded and destroyed but then they believe that they suffered a “system failure” which is the breakdown of the fragile interrelationship of the political, social, and economic systems that sustained order and prosperity.

The end of civilization is speculated with many theories. Some of the factors for the precipitation may have been natural

disasters such as and earthquake or massive flooding. Gradual ecological changes may also have played a role.

The Hakra river system dried up, and salnization and erosion may have taken their toll.

This was a huge turning point for the Indus valley civilization because it diminished their chance of survival and may have led to their end.

salnization: and increase in the amount of salt in the

soil, inhibiting plant growth.

There are many mysteries, doubts and unanswered questions about this civilization that are left. Although their writing system is now viewed as a work of art instead of a communication source, we can potentially learn a lot about their life style if e were to decipher it. We are only left to speculate about how they just disappeared out of no where and base theories on natural disasters and try to find and explanation based on the facts we do now.