[SunkenCiv]

The Indus civilization was first identified at Harappa, once a city of 80,000 people. [Photograph by James P. Blair, National Geographic]

[count-your-change]

Those folks weren’t much on house building but their sidewalks were excellent in the picture.

[BenLurkin]

Interesting article.

As a side note: Case Western Reserve University -- go Cleveland!

[InABunkerUnderSF]

So, if you have a rich city people from poorer regions will come in and try to take your stuff. (See the history of the 4th Century Roman Empire, or later, the 20th century Rio Grande civilization.)

One way to keep the invaders out is to hire mercenaries. One problem with mercenaries is that it's difficult to sustain their loyalty over a long period of time. A way to counter that is to marry off the mercenaries to local girls. The recruiting poster would be "Come to Harappa, join the army and take a wife!"

Of course there's no evidence of this.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Bones from about 1900 to 1700 B.C. -- more than a millennium later than those examined by Kenoyer -- make it clear that at least some Harappan residents were subjected to savage violence. The skull of a child between four and six years old was cracked and crushed by blows from a club-like weapon. An adult woman was beaten so badly -- with extreme force, according to researchers -- that her skull caved in. A middle-aged man had a broken nose as well as damage to his forehead inflicted by a sharp-edged, heavy implement.

Islam is older than we thought? ;)

[publius911]

It may be no coincidence that at the time of these burials the Indus civilization was beginning to disintegrate and parts of Harappa were being abandoned, for reasons that scholars are still debating.

The most likely culprits that come to mind were still eating grass, worms, and rocks for another 2700 years...
In this particular instance, it might not have been koranimals.

[dljordan]

Wait! I’ve got it! The government built “low income” housing in the neighborhood!

[Boogieman]

Let’s see, half the skulls show serious violence, including against at least one child, and the native women are married to foreign men. That sounds more like the city was conquered, with the native men and children killed, and the native women taken as prizes, than this interpretation they’ve come up with.

[wildbill]

“...the Indus civilization was beginning to disintegrate and parts of Harappa were being abandoned, for reasons that scholars are still debating.”

Hey, if you have skull smashers roaming around the city, I don’t know about you, but I’m beating feet outathere.

Debate over.

[Jack Hammer]

“It may be no coincidence that at the time of these burials the Indus civilization was beginning to disintegrate...”

Exactly so - and it’s a lesson worth studying in the present-day United States.

[ZULU]

Remember reading that their cities were not fortified and were probably destroyed by waves of invaders - probably Indo-European Steppe nomads ancestral to the Persians and Sanskrit speaking Aryans.

[Sherman Logan]

Modern archaeologists are constantly searching for two thing:

A “peaceful” society.

A society where women were “equal” to men, or preferably dominant.

That no such societies have been found never causes them to stop projecting their own obsessions onto the past. Which of course tells us a lot more about them than it does about the people they study.

[DDMisra]

There are many amazing facts about Indus valley civilization which appear mysterious. I feel the key to these mysteries of Harappan civilization lies in the little known Harappan calendar still in use.

For more details visit www.lusa.info/amazing