The preservation of plant remains is often poor, depending on local conditions, the type of plant, and chance. It may have been through familiarity with the range of local flora that some summer-growing plants were brought under cultivation, introducing the innovation of kharif agriculture. The ancient world consisted of four great civilizations: China, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley Civilization. Such a ship could have been used both for coastal sailing and for seafaring in the Gulf where its shallow draft would have been advantageous. Another insight into the organized nature of the internal distribution network is provided by the existence of a standardized system of weights and measures, used throughout the Indus realms, weights, made of stone such as chert, were generally cubical in shape, but fine jasper or agate weights in the form of truncated spheres also occurred, as well as a few pierced conical weights and knobbed conical weights resembling the pawn in a chess set. Vessels constructed in this way are very resilient. General Knowledge on Indus Valley Civilization | indus-valley-civilization Economic Life of Indus Valley Civilization The economy of Indus Valley Civilization was based upon agriculture and trade. A clay model from Lothal represents a boat with a mast, attachments for a sail, and a steering oar. Shells, used particularly as the main material for making bangles, were gathered in large quantities on the Makran and Gujarat coasts. This empire broke up around 2200, but the region was reunified under the Ur III dynasty (2112-2004 BC). Seasonal movement was an important part of the pastoral economy in Harappan times, and it seems highly probable that people taking their animals through different parts of the Indus realms would have acted as carriers, moving goods from source to consumer and participating in a complex network of connections among pastoral groups from different regions, enabling the produce of one region to be transported to others. The Sumerian and Harappan civilizations were comparable in their organizational and economic complexity. This website includes study notes, research papers, essays, articles and other allied information submitted by visitors like YOU. The Economy of the Indus Valley Civilization (Harappan Civilization) was based on agriculture and trade. The economy of the Indus Valley was based on trade; There was trade in the borders of the civilization and there was trade with Mesopotamia; Carts and boats, the product of technological advancements, were also used in trade; Because the Indus Valley had a lot of water they could irrigate crops well; Barley and wheat were the main crops Mesopotamia, a major consumer of raw materials from the Iranian plateau and beyond, shifted most of its interest to new sources and suppliers in the Gulf, and communications between the Indus region and Seistan ceased. However, although a number of Harappan metal artifacts were made of bronze (tin-copper alloy), the majority were of copper or copper-arsenic alloy. Wheat was a staple, while peas, rice, and cotton were also grown. In the Mature Harappan period it was grown in both the Indus Valley and Baluchistan. By the twenty-fourth century BC and probably earlier, the Harappans were also sailing right through the Gulf to Mesopotamia. Decline in trade is the economic theory given for the fall of the Indus Valley civilization. Among the important resources of this region was salt, from the Salt Range where a Late Kot Diji settlement is known at Musakhel. Agricultural work was carried out in remote and undeveloped areas around the Harappan cities, from where the ruling classes brought agricultural surpluses for future use and stored them in the granaries. Later this region had several different styles of Harappan pottery (Sindhi and Sorath), but its inhabitants were no longer pursuing a hunter- gatherer way of life. Often individual workshops concentrated on producing a particular type of shell artifact or on working a particular variety of shell. During the winter months, between October/November and March/April, the gentle northeast monsoon winds blow from India toward the Arabian Peninsula and ultimately East Africa. The Indus Valley economy was vigorously founded on trade; it was one of the most significant qualities of this progress. Other fruits that may have been grown or collected locally include caper, mango, and sugarcane, and adjacent regions may also have supplied fruits, vegetables, and nuts, including cucumbers, pistachios, almonds, and walnuts, all known from sites farther west; walnuts have also been recovered from Hulas, along with the fruit of the pipal tree (Ficus religiosa). A town was established on the coast at Qala’at al-Bahrain, where there was a good natural harbour. This is jewelry from Mesopotamia at the time, though the Indus Valley would have had its own gold jewelry. At Rojdi, about a quarter of the plant food came from wild sources; more than a dozen species of wild plants were utilized at Harappa; and the balance between wild and domestic plant foods was likely to have been regionally and locally variable. Today the brackish subsoil water and poor rainfall provide little support for arable agriculture, but in Indus times, when a considerable flow of river water entered the Ranns, the underground water was probably sweet and could have been accessed for irrigation by digging wells. So, the Indus people used tools of Bronze. The spread first of pastoral groups and later of farmers into the Indus plains and beyond into Gujarat and the Indo- Gangetic divide brought fanners and hunter-gatherers into closer contact, and in many areas this led to acculturation. At the opposite end of the greater Indus region was the outpost of Mehgam on the southern Gujarat mainland, a site linked to the exploitation of gemstones. The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE. Bronze is a mixture of Tin and Copper.. Harappan artifacts such as beads, terracotta cakes, and toy carts might have been acquired haphazardly in individual transactions, when, for example, pastoralists from this region migrated to the plains during the winter, but the presence of an Indus weight in the Late Kot Diji settlement of Gumla shows that this trade was organized. The Kot Diji areas of the northern borderlands developed their own separate Late Kot Diji culture, though they continued to trade with the Harappans. Trade routes connected urban areas to share resources such as stones and metals. The economy depended greatly on trade. Our mission is to provide an online platform to help students to discuss anything and everything about history. It flourished in the basins of the Indu… Some of their common trade partners include Southern India, Afghanistan, and especially Mesopotamia. As early as the Early Indus period, a trading relationship had developed between the Indus farmers and the people of the Aravallis, who had been exploiting the region’s copper since the late fourth millennium. The forests of the Himalayas, Baluchistan, and the Gujarati hills, as well as the jungles of well watered lowlands in the Indus Basin, were the source of timber used as a building material, for fuel, for many domestic purposes, and for export. The establishment of new Harappan settlements along the Makran coast reflected the development of this maritime trade. The Indus is navigable from where it enters the plains in Punjab, south of the Salt Range. The use of a design on the seal would have allowed their recognition by all concerned parties, such as carriers and warehouse workers, whereas the writing could be understood only by (the probably limited number of) literate individuals. The development of watercraft was stimulated by the needs of fishers and the colonization of areas where water transport was required, such as the islands of Gujarat and the shores of Lake Manchar. Groundwater, rivers, lakes, streams, and especially floodwaters sufficed. Some of the raw materials required by the Harappans could be obtained from neighboring areas. The Indus Valley was an agricultural society, but trade was very important. Boats like these with a shallow draft can be used on the Indus except during the most turbulent period of the summer inundation; other branches of the modern Indus, such as the Western Nara, are navigable for most of the year. About one year in four brings abnormally high or low quantities of water; the river floods unevenly, depending on where it breaks its banks; and it changes its course frequently. The city workers used to make Pots, Plates, and glasses out of mud and clay to sell them. 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