20 votes
Accepted

Is Indus civilization over 8000 years old?

There's a bit of confusion over terms here. The culture that was first excavated at Harrapa, as per the idiom of archeologists, was named "Harrapan" after the first archeological site at ...
T.E.D.'s user avatar
  • 118k
9 votes
Accepted

Has Mohenjo-daro been reconstructed?

There's an article here with details and reconstruction pictures like this one. Most of the site is small houses and you can see from photos many have not been reconstructed but there is still a lot ...
Fruit Monster's user avatar
8 votes
Accepted

Interpreting two recent studies on Aryan Invasion/Migration theory?

The first paper basically says that genetically, some remains dated around 2500BCE from an Indus Valley Civilization individual show no central Asian (presumably Indo-European) component. The second ...
T.E.D.'s user avatar
  • 118k
7 votes

Does the appearance of cremation support the Aryan Migration theory?

I just want to know is there any evidence of the practice of burning dead bodies existed in India before 1900 BC It matters very little if there was anecdotal evidence prior to 1900BC. What matters ...
Denis de Bernardy's user avatar
6 votes
Accepted

Are the dimensions of bricks used in Sumerian monuments like the great Ziggurat of Ur the same as in the Indus Valley Civilization?

Page 88 of the reference given above by @T.E.D. gives: The author further observes, on the following page, that: The most suitable brick shape that can improve the way of joining the structure to ...
Pieter Geerkens's user avatar
6 votes

Did the Indus Valley Civilization use cotton as a writing material?

It looks highly unlikely. All we can say for sure is that there doesn't appear to be any evidence that such a thing ever happened during that era. The vast majority of our exemplars of Indus Valley ...
T.E.D.'s user avatar
  • 118k
5 votes
Accepted

Why are pre-Harappan strata grouped together with Early Harappan strata? Does this not obfuscate the development of the civilization?

The confusion here seems to stem from the use of a combined pre-Harappan/early Harappan terminology. We can see this usage repeated in the Wikipedia article for the Indus valley Civilization, in the ...
justCal's user avatar
  • 38.7k
5 votes

How advanced were the people of Indus valley civilization in engineering?

It would be hard to compare with other contemporary civilisation at the time viz Egyptian or Sumerian as not much written information available of that time. However, archealogical finding suggests ...
siddhant Kumar's user avatar
4 votes

Does the appearance of cremation support the Aryan Migration theory?

As you say, cremation in India is first attested in the archaeological evidence with the Bronze Age Cemetery H culture dating from about 1900 BC. This is considered to be the formative stage of Vedic ...
sempaiscuba's user avatar
  • 77.4k
4 votes

What is the etymology of the word "Mehrgarh", one of the earliest Neolithic site in South Asia?

This reportage by Pakistani newspaper Dawn hints at a Balochi etymology for the name Mehrgarh: In native Balochi, 'mehr' stands for love and 'garh' for heaven, translating Mehrgarh into ‘the heaven ...
Evargalo's user avatar
  • 5,839
4 votes

What is the etymology of the word "Mehrgarh", one of the earliest Neolithic site in South Asia?

This isn't a definitive answer, so much as a research dump, but perhaps it may help someone else come up with one. It appears that the site was "discovered" (archeologically that is) in 1974 ...
T.E.D.'s user avatar
  • 118k
3 votes

What effect did the Bronze Age collapse have on India?

The Indus Valley civilization started declining around 1700 BCE. The Bronze Age transitioned into the Iron age also referred to as PGW(Painted Greyware)-Iron age, somewhere around 1000-1100 BCE (Iron ...
NormTrotsky's user avatar
3 votes

What is the methodogy used to determine the exact genetic flow from one area to another and the times in which it flowed?

Having just read A Short History of Humanity by Krause and Trappe, the argument seems to be as follows: You calculate a "distance" (i.e. probably some useful metric) between the genomes e.g. ...
Jan's user avatar
  • 8,382
1 vote

Is there any data that supports or refutes the claim made in this paper about the Harappan/Indus Valley civilization?

Theories about how regional climate change shaped the decline of the Indus Valley Civlization go back to at least the 1960s if not earlier. Here is a review of where the evidence stood as of 2005. ...
Brian Z's user avatar
  • 18.9k
1 vote

What effect did the Bronze Age collapse have on India?

This is probably not a very good answer, although perhaps it provides some context. There is evidence that the Indus valley people migrated towards Sumer, and conducted trade with Oman and the present ...
bandybabboon's user avatar
1 vote

What are the problems archaeologists face in deciphering the Indus Valley writing?

Try seeing the attempted decipherment of Suzzane Marie. She claims it is an Indo Aryan language. Her attempts are promising. Use it to try and decipher this seal: Addendum Suzanne M R Sullivan ...
Anonymous's user avatar

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