THE CIVILIZATION I ADMIRE MOST

There many civilization in this world. Exmples of civilization are Indus Civilization, Chinese Civilization, Egyptian civilization and more. First of all, what is civilization? Civilization is a term used to describe specific stages of human social development and organization considered to be most advanced. The term is also used to refer to a human society that meets such requirements. A civilized society is often characterized by advanced agriculture, long-distance trade, occupational specialization, and urbanism. Aside from these core elements, civilization is often marked by any combination of a number of secondary elements, including a developed transportation system, writing, standards of measurement such as currency, contract and tort-based legal systems, characteristic art styles , monumental architecture, mathematics, sophisticated metallurgy, and astronomy. Civilization that I most admire is Indus Valley Civilization.There are many reason for why I admire this civilization most. The Indus valley civilization, also known as Harappa civilization, is a story of a people tied to their environment. The geography of India is one of great extremes, encompassing desert, mountains, forest, and jungle. All of these environments are susceptible to unpredictable periods of flood, drought, and monsoon. Although India may have some of the most extreme geological and climatic features, these difficult conditions were also a great asset to the development of its early civilizations. The Himalayas provided a great deal of protection from nomadic and military invasions from the north, and other mountain ranges provided similar protection in the west and east. The water ways of the Indus valley provided an excellent resource for trade and commerce throughout India's history, and were very important to the civilizations throughout the Indus. As is found with most state level societies, a rise in the cultivation of agrarian resources, often leads to a eventual population increase. The scenario of the Indus valley follows much the same principle. Archaeological resources suggest that the diverse geography of ancient India was increasing in the amount and specialization of faunal remains around the era of 2,400 and 1,000 BC. This specialization suggests that the Indus valley civilizations were dependent upon the rich alluvial soil of the Indus River, which produced high yields of cereal grains, and cultivated plant materials. By the time of 2,700 BC, the presence of a state level society is evident, complete with hierarchical rule and large scale public works. Such large scale growth in so small a period of time can be attributed to two factors, an organized civilization which took direct control of its environments, and the unique and rich environmental resources India provided.

One of the cities located in the Indus Valley is Harappa, and a neighboring city 350 miles away, Mohenjo-Daro. It built orderly walls of massive brick buildings with high sophisticated sanitation and drainage systems. Harappa is believed to have gotten its start as a farming village around 3300 BC. Mohenjo-Daro is the twin city and both formed the hub of the civilization. Since their planning principles were followed without change at all other sites, these two cities laid the groundwork for the other cities that followed. Both cities were a mile square with defensive outer walls. The street layout shows an understanding of traffic with rounded corners to allow turning of carts easily, and dividing the city into 12 blocks. Except for the west-central blocks, the basic unit of city planning was the individual houses. The Indus people were farmers, weavers, potters, metal workers, toy makers, jewelers, stone cutters and traders Agriculture was the most important occupation In the fertile soils, farmers cultivated two crops a year They were the first who had grown paddy. They knew different methods of irrigation. They used ploughs and sickles Pottery was a popular industry. They were skilled in the use of potters wheel. The Indus people had grown a number of animals such as buffaloes, goats, sheep, pigs, and camels. The Indus people were skilled in the art of spinning and weaving. They manufactured woollen cloth from sheep and goats hair. Manufacture of burnt clay was a major industry of the people. The figures of toys, animals and figurines were manufactured. A miniature toy-cart with a driver pulled by oxen is praiseworthy. Figures of animals such as sacred bull and dove were discovered. The figures of Mother Goddesses were used for religious purposes A large number of seals numbering more than 2000 have been discovered. They carry short inscriptions with carved pictures of animals. The seals were made of terracotta or satellite. They were used for trade. They have provided lot of information about the daily life of the people, their religion, occupations, customs and trade. The people of the Indus Civilization achieved great accuracy in measuring length, mass, and time. They were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights and measures. Their measurements are said to be extremely precise however, a comparison of available objects indicates large scale variation across the Indus territories. Their smallest division, which is marked on an ivory scale found in Lothal, was approximately 1.704 mm, the smallest division ever recorded on a scale of the Bronze Age. Harappan engineers followed the decimal division of measurement for all practical purposes, including the measurement of mass as revealed by their hexahedron weights. These chert weights were in a perfect ratio of 4:2:1 with weights of 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 units, with each unit weighing approximately 28 grams, similar to the English Imperial ounce or Greek uncia, and smaller objects were weighed in similar ratios with the units of 0.871. However, as in other cultures, actual weights were not uniform throughout the area.

Unique Harappan inventions include an instrument which was used to measure whole sections of the horizon and the tidal lock. In addition, Harappans evolved some new techniques in metallurgy and produced copper, bronze, lead, and tin. The engineering skill of the Harappans was remarkable, especially in building docks after a careful study of tides, waves, and currents. The function of the so-called "dock" at Lothal, however, is disputed. In 2001, archaeologists studying the remains of two men from Mehrgarh, Pakistan, made the discovery that the people of the Indus Valley Civilisation, from the early Harappan periods, had knowledge of proto-dentistry. Later, in April 2006, it was announced in the scientific journal Nature that the oldest (and first early Neolithic) evidence for the drilling of human teeth was found in Mehrgarh. Eleven drilled molar crowns from nine adults were discovered in a Neolithic graveyard in Mehrgarh that dates, from 7,500-9,000 years ago. According to the authors, their discoveries point to a tradition of proto-dentistry in the early farming cultures of that region. A touchstone bearing gold streaks was found in Banawali, which was probably used for testing the purity of gold. Well over 400 distinct Indus symbols have been found on seals, small tablets, or ceramic pots and over a dozen other materials, including a "signboard" that apparently once hung over the gate of the inner citadel of the Indus city of Dholavira. Typical Indus inscriptions are no more than four or five characters in length, most of which are very tiny and the longest on a single surface, which is less than 1 inch In a 2009 study by P. N. Rao et al. published in Science, computer scientists, comparing the pattern of symbols to various linguistic scripts and non-linguistic systems, including DNA and a computer programming language, found that the Indus script's pattern is closer to that of spoken words, supporting the hypothesis that it codes for an as-yet-unknown language. Farmer, Sproat, and Witzel have disputed this finding, pointing out that Rao et al. did not actually compare the Indus signs with "real-world non-linguistic systems" but rather with "two wholly artificial systems invented by the authors, one consisting of 200,000 randomly ordered signs and another of 200,000 fully ordered signs, that they spuriously claim represent the structures of all realworld non-linguistic sign systems". The technologies used to create ornaments were not very complex during this period and involved relatively simple procedures of chipping, grinding and drilling . Since no evidence of manufacture of exotic materials has been found from Mehrgarh during this early period, it can be assumed that ornaments from non-local materials were produced by women in distant resource areas and traded to the settlement in finished form. It is not unlikely that communities in the western Baluchistan highlands may have been active in the manufacture or trading items such as lapis and turquoise beads, marine shell beads and native copper beads, all of which have been

found in early burials at Mehrgarh. In addition to this highland trade of exotic commodities there is a possibility that some items, such as large shell bangles made from the marine shell Turbinella pyrum were traded up the Indus valley and reached the site from this other direction. The kitchen and the bathroom had drains leading out. The main drain was running alongside the main roads. The drains were lined with bricks. Most of them were covered. There were flights of steps leading to drains. The drains were cleaned periodically. In building industry, large number of people were employed Manufacture of bricks was an important industry. The bricks were more or less of an uniform size. The lndus people had engaged themselves in internal and foreign trade The Mesopotamian seals were found in Indus cities and the Indus seals were found in Mesopotamia. Remains of dockyard have been discovered at Lethal in Gujarat. In this dockyard, the ships might have been loaded and unloaded. Thus, the Hindus people were familiar with ships. The merchants were prosperous and lived lavishly. They used sticks with marks to measure articles. They also used various kinds of weights and measures. The city was well administered by a class of wealthy merchants and priests. There was some kind of municipal organization It took care of sanitation and regulated trade. It collected taxes in the form of grains and also maintained law and order in the city There were three social groups. The first group or the ruling class lived in the citadel It comprised of wealthy merchants and the high priests. They second group consisted of petty merchants, artisans arid craftsmen. The laborers belonged to the third group and lived in small huts. Generally speaking, the social organization was more definite Wheat and barley were the staple food of the people. Besides these, they consumed milk, meat, fish, fruits and dates. The women wore a short skirt. It. was held at the waist with a girdle. The men wore a long, loose unstitched garment Women wore necklaces bangles, bracelets, earrings and waist bands. These were made of gold and silver, bone, stone, ivory and she! Men had also adorned themselves with ornaments like armlets. The rich wore gold and silver jewelry. The poor used shell, copper and silver ornaments. The women combed their hair. Around 1800 BCE, signs of a gradual decline began to emerge, and by around 1700 BCE, most of the cities were abandoned. However, the Indus Valley Civilization did not disappear suddenly, and many elements of the Indus Civilization can be found in later cultures. Current archaeological data suggest that material culture classified as Late Harappan may have persisted until at least c. 1000-900 BCE and was partially contemporaneous with the Painted Grey Ware culture. Archaeologists have emphasised that, just as in most areas of the world, there was a continuous series of cultural developments. These link "the so-called two major phases of urbanisation in South Asia".

A possible natural reason for the Indus Valley Civilization's decline is connected with climate change that is also signaled for the neighboring areas of the Middle East. The Indus valley climate grew significantly cooler and drier from about 1800 BCE, linked to a general weakening of the monsoon at that time. Alternatively, a important factor may have been the disappearance of substantial portions of the Ghaggar Hakra river system. A tectonic event may have diverted the system's sources toward the Ganges Plain, though there is complete uncertainty about the date of this event, as most settlements inside Ghaggar-Hakra river beds have not yet been dated. Although this particular factor is speculative, and not generally accepted, the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization, as with any other civilization, will have been due to a combination of various reasons. New geological research is now being conducted by a group led by Peter Clift, from the University of Aberdeen, to investigate how the courses of rivers have changed in this region since 8000 years ago, to test whether climate or river reorganizations are responsible for the decline of the Harappan. A 2004 paper indicated that the isotopes of the Ghaggar-Hakra system do not come from the Himalayan glaciers, and were rain-fed instead, contradicting a Harappan time mighty "Sarasvati' river. In the aftermath of the Indus Civilization's collapse, regional cultures emerged, to varying degrees showing the influence of the Indus Civilization. In the formerly great city of Harappa, burials have been found that correspond to a regional culture called the Cemetery H culture. At the same time, the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture expanded from Rajasthan into theGangetic Plain. The Cemetery H culture has the earliest evidence for cremation, a practice dominant in Hinduism until today These are the reasons why I admire the Indus Valley civilization the most. It is the earliest civilization in world. Now we all know how unique is Indus Valley Civilization.We must appreciate all the civilization because it only help us to start or achive this modern world that we live now.

Some Pictures Related To The Indus Valley Civilization

So-called "Priest King" statue,Mohenjo-daro, late Mature Harappanperiod, National Museum, Karachi, Pakistan

Indus Valley seals, British Museum.

Excavated ruins of Mohenjo-daro, with the Great Bath in the front.

Indus tablets. The first one shows a Swastika.

Reference
http://history-world.org/indus_civilization.html http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Ancient/Indus2.html http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/266312/Hinduism/8981/Religion-in-the-Indusvalley-civilization http://wsu.edu/~dee/ANCINDIA/HARAPPA.HTM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization http://www.fact-index.com/i/in/indus_valley_civilization.html http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/india/indus/geography.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilization http://www.indiaandindians.com/india_history/harappan_civilization.php http://www.harappa.com/indus3/e6.html