"Researchers have tentatively reconstructed a model of Indus life from the limited material that remains. Based on important findings from recent surveys and excavations in South Asia and neighboring regions, The Ancient Indus Valley explains what is now known about the Indus civilization's roots in the farming cultures of prehistoric South Asia, as well as the hallmarks of its extraordinary development. It is an eye-opening introduction to a vanished world - and a stirring testament to archaeology's power to recover the past."--BOOK JACKET.

This early civilization was erased from human memory until 1924, when it was rediscovered and announced in the Illustrated London Times. Our understanding of the Indus has been partially advanced by textual sources from Mesopotamia that contain references to Meluhha, a land identified by cuneiform specialists as the Indus, with which the ancient Mesopotamians traded and engaged in battles. In this volume, Rita P. Wright uses both Mesopotamian texts but principally the results of archaeological excavations and surveys to draw a rich account of the Indus civilization's well-planned cities, its sophisticated alterations to the landscape, and the complexities of its agrarian and craft-producing economy. She focuses principally on the social networks established between city and rural communities; farmers, pastoralists, and craft producers; and Indus merchants and traders and the symbolic imagery that the civilization shared with contemporary cultures in Iran, Mesopotamia, Central Asia, and the Persian Gulf region. Broadly comparative, her study emphasizes the interconnected nature of early societies.

A look at the geography, history, economy, language, social classes, villages and cities, religion, culture, and inventions of the ancient Indus River Valley.

An introduction to the civilization of the Indus Valley, which began in ca. 3500 B.C.E., including its culture, government, writing system, and more.

The Indus civilization flourished for half a millennium from about 2600 to 1900 BCE, when it mysteriously declined and vanished from view. It remained invisible for almost four thousand years, until its ruins were discovered in the 1920s by British and Indian archaeologists. Today, after almost a century of excavation, it is regarded as the beginning of Indian civilization and possibly the origin of Hinduism. The Indus: Lost Civilizations is an accessible introduction to every significant aspect of an extraordinary and tantalizing “lost” civilization, which combined artistic excellence, technological sophistication, and economic vigor with social egalitarianism, political freedom, and religious moderation. The book also discusses the vital legacy of the Indus civilization in India and Pakistan today.

Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization presents a refreshingly new perspective on the earliest cities of Pakistan and western India (2600-1900 BC). Through a careful examination of the most recent archaeological discoveries from excavations in both Pakistan and India, the author provides a stimulating discussion on the nature of the early cities and their inhabitants. This detailed study of the Indus architecture and civic organization also takes into account the distinctive crafts and technological developments that accompanied the emergence of urbanism. Indus trade and economy as well as political and religious organizations are illuminated through comparisons with other contemporaneous civilizations in Mesopotamia and Central Asia and through ethnoarchaeological studies in later cultures of South Asia.

The Indus Civilization of India and Pakistan was contemporary with, and equally complex as the better-known cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt and China. The dean of North American Indus scholars, Gregory Possehl, attempts here to marshal the state of knowledge about this fascinating culture in a readable synthesis. He traces the rise and fall of this civilization, examines the economic, architectural, artistic, religious, and intellectual components of this culture, describes its most famous sites, and shows the relationships between the Indus Civilization and the other cultures of its time. As a sourcebook for scholars, a textbook for archaeology students, and an informative volume for the lay reader, The Indus Civilization will be an exciting and informative read.