Harappa is an archaeological site in Punjab, Pakistan, about 24 km (15 mi) west of Sahiwal. The site takes its name from a modern village located near the former course of the Ravi River which now runs 8 km (5.0 mi) to the north. The current village of Harappa is less than 1 km (0.62 mi) from the ancient site. Although modern Harappa has a legacy railway station from the British Raj period, it is a small crossroads town of 15,000 people today. The core of the Harappan civilization extended over a large area, from Gujarat in the south, across Sindh and Rajasthan and extending into Punjab and Haryana. Numerous sites have been found outside the core area, including some as far east as Uttar Pradesh and as far west as Sutkagen-dor on the Makran coast of Baluchistan, not far from Iran.
Mehrgarh is a Neolithic archaeological site situated on the Kacchi Plain of Balochistan in Pakistan. It is located near the Bolan Pass, to the west of the Indus River and between the modern-day Pakistani cities of Quetta, Kalat and Sibi. The site was discovered in 1974 by an archaeological team led by the French archaeologists Jean-François Jarrige and his wife, Catherine Jarrige. Mehrgarh was excavated continuously between 1974 and 1986, and again from 1997 to 2000. Archaeological material has been found in six mounds, and about 32,000 artifacts have been collected from the site. The earliest settlement at Mehrgarh—located in the northeast corner of the 495-acre (2.00 km2) site—was a small farming village dated between 7000 BCE and 5500 BCE.
The history of Pakistan as a state began in 1947, after the end of British rule, and the partition of British India. Spanning the Indus Basin and covering the western expanse of the Indian subcontinent and the eastern borders of the Iranian plateau, the region of present-day Pakistan served both as the fertile ground of a major civilization and as the gateway of South Asia to Central Asia and the Near East.
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known Indus Civilisation 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. Together with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, it was one of three early civilisations of the Near East and South Asia, and of the three, the most widespread. Its sites spanned an area from northeast Afghanistan and much of Pakistan to western and northwestern India. The civilisation flourished both in the alluvial plain of the Indus River, which flows through the length of Pakistan, and along a system of perennial monsoon-fed rivers that once coursed in the vicinity of the Ghaggar-Hakra, a seasonal river in northwest India and eastern Pakistan.
Mohenjo-daro is an archaeological site in the province of Sindh, Pakistan. Built around 2500 BCE, it was the largest settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation, and one of the world's earliest major cities, contemporaneous with the civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Minoan Crete, and Norte Chico. Mohenjo-daro was abandoned in the 19th century BCE as the Indus Valley Civilization declined, and the site was not rediscovered until the 1920s. Significant excavation has since been conducted at the site of the city, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980, the first site in South Asia to be so designated. The site is currently threatened by erosion and improper restoration.
Sir John Hubert Marshall was an English archaeologist who was Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1902 to 1928. He oversaw the excavations of Harappa and Mohenjodaro, two of the main cities that comprise the Indus Valley civilization.
Taxila or Takshashila, is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. Located in the Taxila Tehsil of Rawalpindi District, it lies approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) northwest of the Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area and is just south of Haripur District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Amri is an ancient settlement in modern-day Sindh, Pakistan, that goes back to 3600 BCE. The site is located south of Mohenjo Daro on Hyderabad-Dadu Road more than 100 kilometres north of Hyderabad, Pakistan.
Several periodisations are employed for the periodisation of the Indus Valley Civilisation. While the Indus Valley Civilisation was divided into Early, Mature and Late Harappan by archaeologists like Mortimer Wheeler, newer periodisations include the Neolithic early farming settlements, and use a stage–phase model, often combining terminology from various systems.
The history of measurement systems in India begins in early Indus Valley civilisation with the earliest surviving samples dated to the 5th millennium BCE. Since early times the adoption of standard weights and measures has reflected in the country's architectural, folk, and metallurgical artifacts. A complex system of weights and measures was adopted by the Maurya empire, which also formulated regulations for the usage of this system. Later, the Mughal empire (1526–1857) used standard measures to determine land holdings and collect land tax as a part of Mughal land reforms. The formal metrication in India is dated to 1 October 1958 when the Indian Government adopted the International System of Units (SI).
Harappan architecture is the architecture of the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilization, an ancient society of people who lived during circa 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE in the Indus Valley of modern-day Pakistan and India.
The ancient Indus Valley civilization in South Asia, including current day's Pakistan and north India, was prominent in infrastructure, hydraulic engineering, and had many water supply and sanitation devices that are the first known examples of their kind.
Pakistan is home to many archaeological sites dating from Lower Paleolithic period to Mughal empire. The earliest known archaeological findings belong to the Soanian culture from the Soan Valley, near modern-day Islamabad. Soan Valley culture is considered as the best known Palaeolithic culture of Central Asia. Mehrgarh in Balochistan is one of the most important Neolithic sites dating from 7000 BCE to 2000 BCE. The Mehrgarh culture was amongst the first culture in the world to establish agriculture and livestock and live in villages. Mehrgarh civilization lasted for 5000 years till 2000 BCE after which people migrated to other areas, possibly Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. Harappa and Mohenjo-daro are the best known sites from the Indus Valley civilization.
Pakistan contains many of the oldest archaeological discoveries of the world. The country is home to many archaeological sites dating from Lower Paleolithic period to Mughal empire. The earliest known archaeological findings belong to the Soanian culture from the Soan Valley, near modern-day Islamabad. Soan Valley culture is considered as the best known Palaeolithic culture of Central Asia.
Timeline of Indian innovation encompasses key events in the history of technology in the subcontinent historically referred to as India and the modern Indian state.
The University of ancient Taxila was an ancient Indian university located in the city of Taxila near the bank of the Indus River. According to the Ramayana, the city of Takṣaśilā (तक्षशिला) was founded by Bharata, the son of Kaikeyi, and younger stepbrother of Rama. Along with Nalanda, Taxila was one of the leading seats of higher learning in ancient India. It became the capital of the Achaemenid territories in northwestern Indian subcontinent following the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley around 540 BCE. Taxila was at the crossroad of the main trade roads of Asia, and was probably populated by Persians, Greeks, Scythians and many ethnicities coming from the various parts of the Achaemenid Empire.
Indus–Mesopotamia relations are thought to have developed during the second half of 3rd millennium BCE, until they came to a halt with the extinction of the Indus valley civilization after around 1900 BCE. Mesopotamia had already been an intermediary in the trade of lapis lazuli between the Indian subcontinent and Egypt since at least about 3200 BCE, in the context of Egypt-Mesopotamia relations.
The Priest-King is a small male figure sculpted in steatite and found in 1925–1926 during the excavation of what is now Mohenjo-daro, Pakistan, a principal urban settlement of the Indus Valley Civilisation. A rare human sculpture from Mohenjo-daro, and the best-known stone sculpture of the Indus civilisation, it is dated to around 2000–1900 BCE. Its excavation was carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India during the period of the British Raj in South Asia. The Priest-King is now in the collection of the National Museum of Pakistan as NMP 50-852. According to an archaeologist, "the sculptor combined naturalistic detail with stylized forms to create a powerful image that appears much bigger than it actually is."
The religion of the Indus Valley civilization ("IVC") is a debated topic and remains a matter of speculation. If the Indus script is ever deciphered, this may provide clearer evidence. The first excavators of the IVC were struck by the absence of obvious temples or other evidence of religion, and there remain no examples of buildings generally agreed by scholars to have had a religious function, although some suggestions of religious use have been made.
