India, Indus River Valley, or Harappa

The evidence indicates that the early Indus River Valley people came from the area now known as Iran and settled around the Indus River and its tributaries. They herded goats, sheep, and cattle and they farmed wheat and barley. They worshiped goddesses that were associated with bulls and rams.

The Indus River Valley culture began to develop in the early Rivi Phase of 3500 – 2800 B.C.E. when agricultural villages were established around the Indus River and its tributaries and Mesopotamia and Egypt were already in the Copper Age.

“Unlike in Mesopotamia, developments in the Indus River basin reflected an indigenous tradition combined with strong influences from the peoples of the Iranian plateau, as well as indirect influences from the peoples of more distant cities on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers."

Like the Mesopotamians, however, the Harappans were pushed out of the hills due to population growth. The “indigenous peoples” referenced in the quote above were the inhabitants of the foothills of the Baluchistan Mountains who migrated into the valley as the hills became crowded.

The expansion of agriculture in this basin, like those in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China, depended on the river’s annual floods. Here the river provided the land with predictable amounts of water, drawn from the melting snow of the Himalayas and beyond, that replenished the soil and averted draughts. From June to September, the rivers inundated the plain. Once the waters receded, farmers planted wheat and barley on fertile soft alluvium. They harvested the crops the next spring as temperatures rose.