Indus Civilization

-The earliest South Asian civilization emerges in the Indus River Valley (present - day Pakistan)
-Had twin capitals:
-Harappa
-Mohenjo-Daro
- city laid out in an organized pattern
-used clay bricks for building
-had plumbing system
-own system of weights and measures
-own system of writing
-well organized government
-many people made money by farming and trading (they made cotton into cloth, and grew wheat, barley, melons, and dates)
-merchants and traders had ships to carry cloth, grain, copper pearls, and ivory combs overseas

2600 BC - 1900 BC

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both cities large and dominated by a massive hilltop structure

Religion:
-seemed polytheistic
-mother of creation widely honored
-viewed the buffalo and bull sacred, as well as other animals

Decline
-use of writing suddenly stopped
-Mohenjo-Daro was empty and other city's populations decreased immensely
-Theories of Scholars:
-invaders attacked and overran cities
-environmental damage
-major flood
-devastating earthquake
-a combination of these theories/events