New Knowledge about the Indus Civilization, page 1

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Topic started on 21-7-2008 @ 09:38 PM by Hanslune

The Indus

THAR DESERT, PAKISTAN–Egypt has pyramids, temples, and mummies galore. Ancient Mesopotamians left behind the dramatic saga of Gilgamesh, receipts detailing their most prosaic economic transactions, and the occasional spectacular tomb. But the third of the world’s three first civilizations had, well, good plumbing. Even the archaeologists who first discovered the Indus civilization in the 1920s found the orderly streetscapes of houses built with uniform brick to be numbingly regimented. As recently as 2002, one scholar felt compelled to insist in a book that the remains left behind by the Indus people “are not boring.”

Archaeologists now realize that the Indus dwarfed its grand neighbors in land area and population, surpassed them in many areas of engineering and technology, and was an aggressive player during humanity’s first flirtation with globalization 5000 years ago.

[Mehrgarh] is now widely accepted as a precursor to the Indus and clear proof of the indigenous nature of the later civilization. That idea gets new support from surveys here in the Thar Desert, on the eastern edge of the Indus valley. This area was long assumed to have been largely uninhabited before the rise of the Indus cities. But hundreds of small sites now show that humans lived here on the plains, not just in the Baluchistan hills, for several millennia prior to the rise of the Indus,

For the first half-century after its discovery, the Indus was virtually synonymous with Mohenjo Daro and Harappa. No other major cities were known. But along with 1000 smaller sites, archaeologists now count at least five major urban areas and a handful of others of substantial size.

[edit on 23-7-2008 by Byrd]

reply posted on 22-7-2008 @ 07:46 AM by C.C.Benjamin

Well, I'd love to see those images, but apparently they are "All things Pakistan"...apart from the language, I guess!

reply posted on 22-7-2008 @ 11:10 AM by Hanslune

Well dang

All the links are be usurped

If a mod comes by can you delete those images please?

reply posted on 23-7-2008 @ 01:12 AM by encinoman

I'm sorry to break this to you but this information is not really "new". It has been know that the Indus River Valley aka The Harappan Civilization was extreamly technologically advanced for its time architecturally. The Hindu's (people of the Indus River Valley practiced the religion of Hinduism) used city planning and were the first culture to actually do so. City planning for those who don't know what it is, is where architects actually sit down and plan out on paper the exact layout of the city before building it. The Hindu's also had very advanced plumbing that even dwarfed plumbing in the 17th, 18th and maybe even some of the 19th century's. The plumbing even dwarfs most of todays 3rd world countries. The Hindu's used underground sewer systems to take out the waste and always had fresh water. The Hindu's were the first culture to have bathrooms in there own house, not only the rich population had these everyone did. Also the Hindu's were very anal with there architecture so it was inevitable that everything was precise and symmetrical.

reply posted on 23-7-2008 @ 02:53 AM by C.C.Benjamin

I believe it is unknown what their religion was, and I doubt it was Hinduism. They are too old for it, basically, but it wouldn't surprise me if much of the myths and legends of Hinduism were derived from events that occured with the Indus Valley Civilization.

reply posted on 23-7-2008 @ 02:23 PM by Hanslune

I would think that was the case CC, Hinduism may have arisen from the myth, legends and actions of that earlier empire. What has made the Harappa less interesting is their lack of a language that can be read- versus the materials from the Egyptians and Sumer. So little material has been recovered and no Champollon and Rosetta have come along ether.

reply posted on 23-7-2008 @ 07:35 PM by Byrd

Sadly, all the interesting articles that the blog refers to are to a "subscription only" website. But the taste of what's there is very intriguing. I wonder how much is being lost because of looting and warfare in the area.

A brief archaeological report of Mehrgarh is here:
archaeology.about.com...

A more detailed view is here:
www.chowk.com...

I was interested to read that the oldest tools are pre-homo sapiens and date to about 2 million years ago.

reply posted on 23-7-2008 @ 08:43 PM by encinoman

Originally posted by C.C.Benjamin
I believe it is unknown what their religion was, and I doubt it was Hinduism. They are too old for it, basically, but it wouldn't surprise me if much of the myths and legends of Hinduism were derived from events that occured with the Indus Valley Civilization.

There religion was very greatly known. And to say that they were Hindu's says that their whole way of life is also a myth. The Hindu's lived by a very strict Caste System. Where they believed that in their life all the good and bad things they did were tallied at the end of their life and this was known as Karma. Their karma determined where they were in the caste system in their next life(the Hindu's were born into their caste and were there for their whole life and could not move up or down in the system). This is known as Reincarnation. They believed that they were reincarnated until they reached Moksha. Moksha is spiritual enlightenment and all knowing. Hinduism kept these people from revolting against the caste system. These people actually believed that they deserved to be Untouchables if thats the caste they were born into. An untouchable is a person who were deemed unpure and cast out of society.

Also if Hinduism is just a myth then that means that Buddhism, Jainism, and even Kamasutra are just a myth too because all these religions stemmed from Hinduism.

Siddhartha Gutama was born a Hindu but had other beliefs and did not like Hinduism. Therefore he set up his own beliefs he called Buddhism. More and more people started to follow him and the Bramin didn't like it too much so they tried to kill him and it didn't work and they also tried to socially discredit him. Some people stayed Hindu and others turned to Buddhism. Siddhartha Gutama what the first Buddhist to reach Nirvana and became known as Buddha. Nirvana is the Buddhist form of Moksha, and Buddha means the Enlightened one or the all knowing one.

Therefore there is no way that Hinduism is a myth.

reply posted on 24-7-2008 @ 12:25 AM by Ruggeder

Siddhartha Gautama was not the first to reach enlightenment, the scriptures speak of countless millions before him who have, and countless millions who will after, the future Buddha being Maitreya. Interesting about the people though, things like this should get more press time.

reply posted on 24-7-2008 @ 09:14 PM by encinoman

He may not have been the first to reach enlightenment but he was definitely the first Buddhist to do so for he was the founder of Buddhism. If you've ever read the story then you'd know that he sat underneath a hugh tree for over 100 days and did not eat a thing only drank and through this fasting he reached enlightenment. And later this followers followed his example and created the Eight Fold Path aka The Midway. These were the steps you had to take to reach enlightenment.

And I'm sorry but I really doubt that millions of people reached enlightenment because if so many people reached enlightenment then there would be no war, no violence, and all those things.

reply posted on 24-7-2008 @ 11:33 PM by Byrd

Let's not debate religion in this thread, please.

There are whole areas of the board set aside for that topic.

Without any writings, we have no clues what they believed or what they called their gods.

reply posted on 25-7-2008 @ 01:02 AM by C.C.Benjamin