Indus Valley civilization

The Indus Valley civilization is also known as the Harappan civilization, after Harappa, one of the first major sites identified by archaeologists. Its settlements extended across a large area of South Asia, including parts of present-day Pakistan and northwestern India. The mature urban period is generally dated to about 2600–1900 BCE, although communities and cultural practices in the region existed before and after this period. The civilization was among the earliest urban cultures of the Indian subcontinent and was contemporary with other Bronze Age societies in western Asia and north Africa.

Harappa and Mohenjo-daro are its best-known large cities, but the archaeological record includes many other settlements, such as Rakhigarhi and Dholavira. At Mohenjo-daro, the surviving brick-built acropolis and lower town show deliberate planning. Across the wider region, excavated objects—including seals, pottery, beads and standardized weights—show skilled craft production and shared practices over long distances. Agriculture supported urban life, while exchange moved raw materials and finished goods between settlements and beyond the region. The evidence points to substantial coordination, but it does not establish a single empire or one uniform political system.

Short inscriptions, often appearing on seals and other objects, record a system of signs known as the Indus or Harappan script. The script has not been deciphered, and no reading is generally accepted by specialists. As a result, archaeologists cannot confidently identify the languages represented or directly read the society's own accounts of its institutions, beliefs or rulers. Much of what is known comes instead from settlement patterns, buildings, artefacts and comparisons with contemporary regions; interpretations of social and political organization therefore remain provisional.

After about 1900 BCE, the large urban system changed: features such as planned cities and widely shared weights and measures became less common. Archaeologists describe this as a gradual and regionally varied transformation rather than a single, clearly documented collapse. Its causes remain debated, and patterns differed among settlements. The Indus civilization is studied through archaeological sites and objects because its undeciphered script leaves no readable narrative history. Mohenjo-daro, one of its principal cities, is now a UNESCO World Heritage property in Pakistan.