Who were the Indus people?

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Learn about the people of the Indus Valley and what their lives might have been like.

Society

writing

religion

TRADE and Industry

Cities

Reproduction by permission of Oriental Museum, Durham University.

Cities

Up Next: Mohenjo-daro

The Indus Valley civilisation is famed for its well-planned and well-organised cities. Roads and lanes formed grids across the cities and were lined with private houses. These houses were similar in size and layout, built around a central courtyard. These were constructed of mud bricks baked in the sun, which were also of a standard size! Cities were kept clean through sophisticated sanitation systems with drains running by the sides of roads and from private houses. Houses were arranged around private wells, and the presence of bathrooms meant that most people had access to washing facilities within their own homes. At the site of Dholavira reservoirs collected rain during the seasonal monsoon to provide water for the city’s residents.

The Great Granary at Harappa, The Marshall Archive

Reproduction by permission of Oriental Museum, Durham University.

Mohenjo-daro, The Marshall Archive

R. D. Banerji A long overlooked Indian archaeologist who is now being formally recognised. Click to find out more

Up Next: An Indus Mystery

To the west was the Citadel Mound, enclosed by a large wall. Below the Citadel to the East was the lower town, where most of Mohenjo-daro’s population would have lived. For many years archaeologists thought that the layout of Mohenjo-daro was very similar to that of Harappa, with a Citadel to the west and lower town to the east. However, it is now known that Harappa was formed of at least four walled mounds, and other Indus cities and settlements have slightly different layouts.

Case Study: Mohenjo-daro

Mohenjo-daro was first discovered in 1911. However, it wasn't until 1922 that Rakhal Das Banerji (an Indian archaeologist working for the Archaeological Survey of India) recognised its significance as part of a previously unknown Bronze Age Civilisation. Located in the lower Indus Valley in modern Pakistan, it is one of the best-preserved cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation.

An Indus Mystery: Citadels

Mohenjo-Daro city plan, showing the location of the Great Bath. (after Coningham and Young 2015: 185)

The Citadel at Mohenjo-daro contains several large buildings. This includes what is known as the ‘Great Bath’, which was a brick structure lined with bitumen to make it watertight. It was located next to a large pillared hall and a structure identified as a granary. These have been identified as public monuments, with the Great Bath seen as a place of ritual bathing. It is still not known if the Citadel and its buildings at Mohenjo-daro was a palace, a temple, an administrative centre, a public space or some or all of these possibilities!

Trade Beyond the Indus Valley

Transport

Industry and Manufacturing

Trade and Industry

Images reproduced by permission of Oriental Museum,Durham University.

The Indus Valley had regional and international connections across land and sea as far as Mesopotamia, almost 3,000 km away. This trade was vital to the Indus’s economy and was carefully regulated through standardised weights and measures. Seals inscribed with script and symbols may have been used to identify ownership of goods.

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Industry and Manufacturing

Examples of painted Indus pottery in the Oriental Museum's collection. Image reproduction by permission of Oriental Museum, Durham University.

Workshops have been found in Indus cities, where semi-precious stones and shells were turned into finished products, such as beads by skilled artisans. Craftspeople would also have produced pots out of clay. These simple, stylised designs remained popular for centuries and are found right across the region. Though this shows a degree of cultural and artistic cohesion, many regional variations and styles are present across the Indus Valley civilisation. Pottery is one of the most common finds at archaeological sites. This is because pottery was often widely used and survives in the ground for thousands of years, unlike perishable materials like wood. Because of this, painted pots, like the ones exhibited within the Oriental Museum’s collections, display our only evidence of painting by communities of the Indus Valley civilisation.

Trade Beyond the Indus Valley

Carnelian is a semi-precious stone found in areas of the Indus Valley. Indus carnelian artefacts have been found across Mesopotamia. The beautiful, finely decorated carnelian bead shown here was discovered in Nippur, Mesopotamia. It was produced in the Indus valley and provides evidence that the two regions were in contact. The beads would have formed necklaces like the one shown here, which was found at the Royal Cemetery of Ur in Mesopotamia.

Transport

The people of the Indus Valley were well connected and trade happened by both land, rivers and sea. Over land, merchandise was transported by human porters or on carts led by sheep, goats and cattle. Terracotta models of carts and saddles like these suggest how goods may have been transported. Carts and saddles are often made of wood and leather which rarely survive to the present day so finds like these give archaeologists glimpses into people's daily lives. People and goods would have moved along the rivers and long distance trade between the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia was likely by the sea and coast. The seal impressions shown here were found at Mohenjo-daro and show what a boat may have looked like during this period.

Society

Reproduction by permission of Oriental Museum, Durham University.

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The Role of Women

How was Society Organised?

Rule of the Priest Kings?

Rule of the Priest Kings?

Image reproduction by permission of Oriental Museum, Durham University.

This stone bust is one of the most famous Indus discoveries. Early archaeologists thought it showed a priest king. They thought that the Indus would be like Mesopotamian societies, which were ruled by powerful priests and kings. However, as more is discovered about the Indus, the more equal their society appears to be. There is little evidence of an elite ruling class such as nobility and kings or a group appearing to hoard wealth and luxury items. The Indus lacks grand palaces as well as the usual objects associated with the glorification of kingship, like the pyramids in Ancient Egypt. This is very different to Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. For example, it is common to find Ancient Egyptian artefacts glorifying the pharaoh and his deeds, such as this sword, currently on display in the Oriental Museum's Thacker Gallery.

An Equal Society? There is also not much evidence of inequality across the Indus Valley Civilisation. Most private houses were of a similar size and design and no palace structures have been confirmed. Prestigious and expensive objects have also not been found in great numbers in the Citadels. This is not what is expected if an elite lived there, especially when compared to the civilisations of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, where displays of wealth and power are common and monumental. A Peaceful Society? The Indus Valley Civilisation has also been viewed as peaceful, as no representations of war or military conflicts have been found and the large walls around parts of Indus cities may have been built for non-military reasons, such as flood defences. Information and clues about how Indus society was organised may be recorded within the Indus script, but until this can be read, much of their way of life will remain a mystery.

How was society organised?

Indus society was highly complex and certain aspects suggest the existence of centralised organisation. These include planned city layouts with large public buildings and sophisticated water management systems that would have required maintenance and repair. Standardisation For over 600 years, artefacts across the Indus Valley Civilisation showed lots of similarities and standardisation. This includes weights, which would have regulated trade. This evidence was used to suggest that the Indus Civilisation was organised as a state, which was ruled by elites who ran the Indus Valley Civilisation from the Citadels of cities such as Mohenjo-daro. However, this view of society has now been questioned. In addition to similarities, more regional styles and designs have now been identified within artefacts, especially pots, across the Indus Valley Civilisation. Whilst some archaeologists argue that the whole region was united, others believe that the cities were run independently but within a wider shared culture.

A Matriarchy?

Photograph of two female terracotta figures found at Mohenjo-daro. Reproduction by permission of Oriental Museum, Durham University.

Many terracotta figurines like these have been discovered in the Indus Valley. The majority of these are representations of women. Rather than a Priest King, could the Indus society have been a matriarchy - a society organised and ruled by women, or is it more likely that these figurines represented goddesses, rather than real women?

The Indus Script

What are seals?

Writing

Reproduction by permission of Oriental Museum, Durham University.

Over 3,000 engraved Indus seals have been discovered. As well as symbols, the majority have an animal carved on them, like the elephant shown here. Seals and early forms of writing have been used to record what people buy and sell and mark ownership of personal property such as food. The Indus script may have had this use, but others suggest the seals and the animals depicted may identify different communities within the Indus Valley. However, until the Indus script can be translated, their full meaning and purpose remains unknown.

The Indus Valley civilisation had their own form of writing which has not yet been deciphered. This script is written in signs and symbols and is mainly found on seals like the ones shown here.

Religion

Reproduction by permission of Oriental Museum, Durham University.

Very little is known about what the peoples of the Indus Valley believed in. Some scholars argue that they shared a religion whereas others believe it was more localised with individual sites following their own practices. No conclusive evidence of temples has been found. The large citadel structures, such as the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro, could serve some religious function but this is still speculation. Terracotta and clay figurines like these were very popular. The female figures could represent spirits or godesses. Some archaeologists argue that they were very personal, devotional objects because so many have been found, such as those shown here. Animal figurines are equally common finds and may also represent spirits but some argue that they were actually children’s toys.