What makes harappan society so unique

The sculpture is significant because it indicates Harappans used dance for art or entertainment. Merchant seals or emblems, carved from the mineral talc, are among the most common Harappan artifacts. The seals had images of animals or other decorations.

They were likely used by merchants for sending and receiving packages. The seal was a symbol and its mark proved that the package was sent by a particular merchant. One famous seal depicts the god Pashupati. This may have been an early representation of the Hindu god Shiva, who is known as "The Destroyer. The Indus Valley civilization was part of a trading network that included Afghanistan, Iran, and Oman.

The Harappans were among the first civilizations to develop a system of standardized weights and measurements. This may have been helpful for trade and tax collection. Archaeologists continue to investigate the Harappan civilization. Since , excavations have resulted in many important discoveries.

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Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives. People with ancestral roots in Asia and the islands of the Pacific have been integral to the story of America. The month of May was selected in recognition of the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants in the United States on May 7, , and the significant contributions of Chinese laborers to the completion of North America's transcontinental railroad on May 10, Currently, those from Asia and the Pacific Islands account for more than 4.

And those numbers do not account for the Asian diaspora scattered throughout the rest of the world. Celebrate and learn more about their heritage through this collection.

Humans relied on hunting and gathering practices to survive for thousands of years before the development of agriculture.

This more reliable food supply meant humans could stay in one place and gave rise to settled communities and cities. These urban civilizations had larger populations, unique architecture and art, systems of government, different social and economic classes, and a division of labor.

Learn more about the rise of cities with these resources. Civilization describes a complex way of life characterized by urban areas, shared methods of communication, administrative infrastructure, and division of labor. Great Zimbabwe was a medieval African city known for its large circular wall and tower.

It was part of a wealthy African trading empire that controlled much of the East African coast from the 11th to the 15th centuries C. Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students. Skip to content. Image Harappan Seals Harappan steatite seals often included images of animals or other decorations and script.

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Related Resources. View Collection. Rise of Cities. Key Components of Civilization. The people of the Indus Valley, also known as Harappan Harappa was the first city in the region found by archaeologists , achieved many notable advances in technology, including great accuracy in their systems and tools for measuring length and mass.

Harappans were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights and measures that conformed to a successive scale. The smallest division, approximately 1. It stands as the smallest division ever recorded on a Bronze Age scale. Another indication of an advanced measurement system is the fact that the bricks used to build Indus cities were uniform in size.

Harappans demonstrated advanced architecture with dockyards, granaries, warehouses, brick platforms, and protective walls. The ancient Indus systems of sewerage and drainage developed and used in cities throughout the region were far more advanced than any found in contemporary urban sites in the Middle East, and even more efficient than those in many areas of Pakistan and India today.

Harappans were thought to have been proficient in seal carving, the cutting of patterns into the bottom face of a seal, and used distinctive seals for the identification of property and to stamp clay on trade goods. Seals have been one of the most commonly discovered artifacts in Indus Valley cities, decorated with animal figures, such as elephants, tigers, and water buffalos.

Harappans also developed new techniques in metallurgy—the science of working with copper, bronze, lead, and tin—and performed intricate handicraft using products made of the semi-precious gemstone, Carnelian. Terracotta works also included cows, bears, monkeys, and dogs. In addition to figurines, the Indus River Valley people are believed to have created necklaces, bangles, and other ornaments.

The Indus River Valley Civilization created figurines from terracotta, as well as bronze and steatite. It is still unknown whether these figurines have religious significance. The Harappan Civilization may have been the first to use wheeled transport, in the form of bullock carts that are identical to those seen throughout South Asia today.

It also appears they built boats and watercraft—a claim supported by archaeological discoveries of a massive, dredged canal, and what is regarded as a docking facility at the coastal city of Lothal. The docks and canal in the ancient city of Lothal, located in modern India. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Indus River Valley Civilization constructed boats and may have participated in an extensive maritime trade network. Trade focused on importing raw materials to be used in Harappan city workshops, including minerals from Iran and Afghanistan, lead and copper from other parts of India, jade from China, and cedar wood floated down rivers from the Himalayas and Kashmir.

Other trade goods included terracotta pots, gold, silver, metals, beads, flints for making tools, seashells, pearls, and colored gem stones, such as lapis lazuli and turquoise.

There was an extensive maritime trade network operating between the Harappan and Mesopotamian civilizations. Harappan seals and jewelry have been found at archaeological sites in regions of Mesopotamia, which includes most of modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, and parts of Syria. Long-distance sea trade over bodies of water, such as the Arabian Sea, Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, may have become feasible with the development of plank watercraft that was equipped with a single central mast supporting a sail of woven rushes or cloth.

During the Early Harappan period about BCE , cultural similarities in pottery, seals, figurines, and ornaments document caravan trade with Central Asia and the Iranian plateau. Harappans are believed to have used Indus Script, a language consisting of symbols.

A collection of written texts on clay and stone tablets unearthed at Harappa, which have been carbon dated BCE, contain trident-shaped, plant-like markings. Indus Script.