Editing Indus Valley Civilisation (section)

== Extent ==
[[File:IVC-major-sites-2.jpg|right|thumb|Major sites and extent of the Indus Valley Civilisation]]

The Indus Valley Civilisation was roughly contemporary with the other riverine civilisations of the ancient world: [[Ancient Egypt]] along the [[Nile]], [[Mesopotamia]] in the lands watered by the [[Euphrates]] and the [[Tigris]], and [[China]] in the drainage basin of the [[Yellow River]] and the [[Yangtze]]. By the time of its mature phase, the civilisation had spread over an area larger than the others, which included a core of {{convert|1500|km|mi|sigfig=1}} up the alluvial plain of the Indus and its tributaries. In addition, there was a region with disparate flora, fauna, and habitats, up to ten times as large, which had been shaped culturally and economically by the Indus.{{sfn|Fisher|2018|p=35}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Fisher: "This was the same broad period that saw the rise of the civilisations of Mesopotamia (between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers), Egypt (along the Nile), and northeast China (in the Yellow River basin). At its peak, the Indus was the most extensive of these ancient civilisations, extending {{convert|1500|km|mi|sigfig=1|abbr=on}} up the Indus plain, with a core area of {{convert|30000|to|100000|km2|sqmi|abbr=on|sigfig=2}} and with more ecologically diverse peripheral spheres of economic and cultural influence extending out to ten times that area. The cultural and technological uniformity of the Indus cities is especially striking in light of the relatively great distances among them, with separations of about {{convert|280|km|mi|abbr=on}} whereas the Mesopotamian cities, for example, only averaged about {{convert|20|to|25|km|mi|abbr=on}} apart.{{sfn|Fisher|2018|p=35}}}}

Around 6500&nbsp;BCE, agriculture emerged in [[Balochistan]], on the margins of the Indus alluvium.{{sfn|Dyson|2018|p=29}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Dyson: "The subcontinent's people were hunter-gatherers for many millennia. There were very few of them. Indeed, 10,000&nbsp;years ago there may only have been a couple of hundred thousand people, living in small, often isolated groups, the descendants of various 'modern' human incomers. Then, perhaps linked to events in Mesopotamia, about 8,500&nbsp;years ago agriculture emerged in Baluchistan."{{sfn|Dyson|2018|p=29}}}}{{sfn|Fisher|2018|p=33}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Fisher: "The earliest discovered instance in India of well-established, settled agricultural society is at Mehrgarh in the hills between the Bolan Pass and the Indus plain (today in Pakistan) (see Map&nbsp;3.1). From as early as 7000&nbsp;BCE, communities there started investing increased labor in preparing the land and selecting, planting, tending, and harvesting particular grain-producing plants. They also domesticated animals, including sheep, goats, pigs, and oxen (both humped zebu [Bos indicus] and unhumped [Bos taurus]). Castrating oxen, for instance, turned them from mainly meat sources into domesticated draft-animals as well.{{sfn|Fisher|2018|p=33}}}} In the following millennia, settled life made inroads into the Indus plains, setting the stage for the growth of rural and urban settlements.{{sfn|Coningham|Young |2015|p=138}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Coningham and Young: "Mehrgarh remains one of the key sites in South Asia because it has provided the earliest known undisputed evidence for farming and pastoral communities in the region, and its plant and animal material provide clear evidence for the ongoing manipulation, and domestication, of certain species. Perhaps most importantly in a South Asian context, the role played by zebu makes this a distinctive, localised development, with a character completely different to other parts of the world. Finally, the longevity of the site, and its articulation with the neighbouring site of Nausharo ({{Circa|2800}}–2000&nbsp;BCE), provides a very clear continuity from South Asia's first farming villages to the emergence of its first cities (Jarrige, 1984)."{{sfn|Coningham|Young |2015|p=138}}}} The more organized sedentary life, in turn, led to a net increase in the birth rate.{{sfn|Dyson|2018|p=29}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Dyson: "In the millennia which followed, farming developed and spread slowly into the Indus valley and adjacent areas. The transition to agriculture led to population growth and the eventual rise of the Indus civilisation. With the movement to settled agriculture, and the emergence of villages, towns and cities, there was probably a modest rise in the average death rate and a slightly greater rise in the birth rate."{{sfn|Dyson|2018|p=29}}}} The large urban centres of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa very likely grew to containing between 30,000 and 60,000&nbsp;individuals, and during the civilisation's florescence, the population of the subcontinent grew to between 4–6&nbsp;million people.{{Sfn|Dyson|2018|p=29}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Dyson: "Mohenjo-daro and Harappa may each have contained between 30,000 and 60,000&nbsp;people (perhaps more in the former case). Water transport was crucial for the provisioning of these and other cities. That said, the vast majority of people lived in rural areas. At the height of the Indus valley civilisation the subcontinent may have contained 4-6&nbsp;million people."{{Sfn|Dyson|2018|p=29}}}} During this period the death rate increased, as the close living conditions of humans and domesticated animals led to an increase in contagious diseases.{{sfn|Fisher|2018|p=33}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Fisher: "Such an "agricultural revolution" enabled food surpluses that supported growing populations. Their, largely cereal diet did not necessarily make people healthier, however, since conditions like caries and protein deficiencies can increase. Further, infectious diseases spread faster with denser living conditions of both humans and domesticated animals (which can spread measles, influenza, and other diseases to humans)."{{sfn|Fisher|2018|p=33}}}} According to one estimate, the population of the Indus civilisation at its peak may have been between one and five million.{{Sfn|McIntosh|2008|pp=186–187}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|McIntosh: "'''Population Growth and Distribution''': "The prehistory of the Indo-Iranian borderlands shows a steady increase over time in the number and density of settlements based on farming and pastoralism. By contrast, the population of the Indus plains and adjacent regions lived mainly by hunting and gathering; the limited traces suggest their settlements were far fewer in number, and were small and widely scattered, though to some extent this apparent situation must reflect the difficulty of locating hunter-gatherer settlements. The presence of domestic animals in some hunter-gatherer settlements attests to contact with the people of the border-lands, probably in the context of pastoralists' seasonal movement from the hills into the plains. The potential for population expansion in the hills was severely limited, and so, from the fourth millennium into the third, settlers moved out from the borderlands into the plains and beyond into Gujarat, the first being pastoralists, followed later by farmers. The enormous potential of the greater Indus region offered scope for huge population increase; by the end of the Mature Harappan period, the Harappans are estimated to have numbered somewhere between 1 and 5&nbsp;million, probably well below the region's carrying capacity."{{Sfn|McIntosh|2008|pp=186–187}}}}

During its height the civilisation extended from Balochistan in the west to western [[Uttar Pradesh]] in the east, from northeastern Afghanistan in the north to [[Gujarat]] state in the south.<ref name="Singh2008">{{harvnb|Singh, Upinder|2008|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC&pg=PA137 137]}}.</ref> The largest number of sites are in the [[Punjab region]], Gujarat, [[Haryana]], [[Rajasthan]], Uttar Pradesh, [[Jammu and Kashmir (state)|Jammu and Kashmir]] states,<ref name="Singh2008"/> [[Sindh]], and Balochistan.<ref name="Singh2008"/> Coastal settlements extended from [[Sutkagan Dor]]<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dales |first=George F. |year=1962 |title=Harappan Outposts on the Makran Coast |journal=Antiquity |volume=36 |issue=142 |pages=86–92|doi=10.1017/S0003598X00029689 |s2cid=164175444 |issn=0003-598X }}</ref> in Western Baluchistan to [[Lothal]]<ref>{{cite book |first=Shikaripura Ranganatha |last=Rao |author-link=Shikaripura Ranganatha Rao |year=1973 |title=Lothal and the Indus civilization |location=London |publisher=Asia Publishing House |isbn=978-0-210-22278-2}}</ref> in Gujarat. An Indus Valley site has been found on the [[Oxus River]] at [[Shortugai]] in [[Afghanistan]] which is the northernmost site of the Indus Valley Civilisation,{{sfn|Kenoyer|1998|p=96}} in the [[Gomal River]] valley in northwestern Pakistan,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dani |first=Ahmad Hassan |year=1970–1971 |title=Excavations in the Gomal Valley |journal=Ancient Pakistan |issue=5 |pages=1–177 |author-link=Ahmad Hasan Dani}}</ref> at [[Manda, Jammu]] on the [[Beas River]] near [[Jammu]],<ref>{{cite book |title=Harappan Civilization: A recent perspective |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XzeJQgAACAAJ |last1=Joshi |first1=J.P. |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1982 |location=New Delhi |pages=185–195 |chapter=Manda: A Harappan site in Jammu and Kashmir |last2=Bala |first2=M. |isbn=9788120407794 |editor=Possehl, Gregory L. |access-date=23 May 2023 |archive-date=21 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231021121157/https://books.google.com/books?id=XzeJQgAACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> and at [[Alamgirpur]] on the [[Hindon River]], only {{convert|28|km|mi|abbr=on}} from Delhi.<ref>{{cite book |title=Indian Archaeology, A Review (1958–1959) |publisher=Archaeol. Surv. India |editor=A. Ghosh |location=Delhi |pages=51–52 |chapter=Excavations at Alamgirpur}}<!-- Needs clarification --></ref> The southernmost site of the Indus Valley Civilisation is [[Daimabad]] in [[Maharashtra]]. [[List of Indus Valley Civilisation sites|Indus Valley sites]] have been found most often on rivers, but also on the ancient seacoast,<ref>{{cite book |last=Ray |first=Himanshu Prabha |year=2003 |title=The Archaeology of Seafaring in Ancient South Asia |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-01109-9|page=95}}</ref> for example, Balakot ([[Kot Bala]]),<ref>{{cite book |title=South Asian Archaeology 1977 |last=Dales |first=George F. |publisher=Seminario di Studi Asiatici Series Minor 6. Instituto Universitario Orientate |year=1979 |location=Naples |pages=241–274 |chapter=The Balakot Project: Summary of four years excavations in Pakistan |editor=Maurizio Taddei}}</ref> and on islands, for example, [[Dholavira]].<ref>{{cite book |title=History and Archaeology |last=Bisht |first=R.S. |publisher=Ramanand Vidya Bhawan|year=1989|isbn=978-81-85205-46-5|location=New Delhi |pages=379–408 |chapter=A new model of the Harappan town planning as revealed at Dholavira in Kutch: A surface study of its plan and architecture |editor=Chatterjee Bhaskar}}</ref>