Why is the Harappa (Indus Valley) civilization considered one of the six independent cradles of civilization?
Upvote:13
Its actually a pretty astute observation that independent river-valley "cradles of civilization" tend to have their own crops associated with them. I've personally had a lot of luck researching plant domestication and its association with nearby river valleys, even in some unexpected places. The two definitely seem related.
However, this isn't a hard and fast rule. Useful plants are one of the things humans societies are quickest to adopt from nearby cultures. This is why the Nile and Mesopotamian "cradle" civilizations had pretty much the same crop package. In fact, you could reasonably ask the same question about those two, if you could figure out for sure which one was first.
All crops are different of course. If a Neolithic people happen to get introduced to a more productive staple crop, it will tend to displace what they were using before. It turns out wheat and barley are two of the most useful in the world. That's why they are still grown (in temperate climates) around the world today. Wheat is second worldwide only to Corn, which was unavailable to prehistoric Asians of course. There's a very good discussion of this in Guns, Germs, & Steel1.
What in fact tends to happen is that useful domesticable plants are domesticated wherever their wild ancestors happen to live. Sometimes that's in a river valley, sometimes not. However, since they are useful they tend to get shared with neighbors, and if they are useful where the neighbors live too, they will get shared further, etc. Eventually this useful crop is liable to make its way into a river valley, where crop yields can be tremendous, and the rest is literally history.
In the Indus Valley's case, their staples appear to have been Wheat and Barley, just like in the Nile and Tigris-Euphrates valley areas. However, Wheat was in fact domesticated from a wild grass native to Anatolia, which geographically isn't in two of those three locations2. The ancestors of those civilizations imported wheat growing from other non-civilized neighbors.
Barley's wild ancestor was much more widely distributed, and in fact was domesticated independently in Tibet, near the headwaters of the Indus. Its very likely the Indus Valley imported their domesticated barley from there rather than from Egypt or Mesopotamia. Modern barley contains genetic markers for wild barley from both locations.
Remember that being a farmer alone doesn't make man civilized. All that means is that you are in the Neolithic. Its a good start, but not the whole enchilada.
Archeologically, we know there was farming based on those crops in the Indus Valley going back to about 7,000BC. That is almost 4,000 years before the beginning of the Indus Valley Civilization, 4,000 years before the Early Dynastic period in Egypt, and more than 4,000 years before the Early Dynastic period in Sumer. To put that in perspective, there is nearly the same amount of distance in time between the first Indus Valley farmers and the start of Near East civilization as there is between the latter and today.
So while some of the crops used in the Indus Valley may not have been of local origin, they did not get them from other civilized societies. They were being farmed locally long before the first civilization arose anywhere.
1 - This book is this website's unofficial required reading list.
More post
- 📝 Has there ever a period in history when people were not killing each other?
- 📝 What is the etymology of Haiti's name?
- 📝 Was the battle of Stalingrad "unique" in the annals of history?
- 📝 How much did J. Robert Oppenheimer get paid while overseeing the Manhattan Project?
- 📝 How did 2nd century Romans decide where to build Hadrian's wall?
- 📝 Who is this particular inventor from XIX century?
- 📝 Was payment on Louisiana Bonds suspended during the War of 1812?
- 📝 How would ancient Sumerian astronomers predict length of the next lunar month?
- 📝 Is Josephus a legitimate historical text?
- 📝 Were there any plans to install a Western Roman Emperor after Belisarius reconquered the west?
- 📝 How many times in history has a government completely "moulded to its own shape the physical character of the people"?
- 📝 A city or a geographical area with corners forming only 45, 90, and 135 degree angles.
- 📝 What were the major ethnic / cultural / politcal divisions of pre-conquest Mesoamerica?
- 📝 From 1936-45 what was the prescribed punishment in Nazi Germany for failing to join or participate in the Hitler Youth?
- 📝 Why the USSR insisted on ban of the 1943 German film Munchhausen in Nuremberg?
- 📝 Did any commoners become prince-electors during the Holy Roman Empire?
- 📝 Which German cities does this article in The Economist allege that Britain destroyed?
- 📝 Was the average lifespan of a soldier deployed within Stalingrad only 24 hours?
- 📝 When did dueling with weapons become socially unacceptable in the western world?
- 📝 What devices used computer-like programs in industrial era?
- 📝 Is there a difference between original 1768-71 and 1968-71 facsimile of 1st edition Encyclopaedia Brittanica
- 📝 Sources for letters written during the Boer Wars?
- 📝 What is the evidence to repudiate this version of the "stab in the back" myth?
- 📝 What events led to the Aztecs and Mayans adopting cocoa beans as a currency?
- 📝 Is there any corroborating evidence for the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?
- 📝 Why did Puerto Rican families send their children to New York?
- 📝 Did Zoroastrianism influence some Ancient Greek Philosophers?
- 📝 Why did Henry III of England give his sons English names, other than naming them after his favourite saints?
- 📝 Did American leaders give any serious consideration to proceeding with Nixon's impeachment and trial after he resigned?
- 📝 What was the Hundred Years' War called at the time?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why is the Harappa (Indus Valley) civilization considered one of the six independent cradles of civilization?
- 📝 Why is the Maya civilization not considered one of the cradles of civilization?
- 📝 How advanced were the people of Indus valley civilization in engineering?
- 📝 Did the Indus Valley Civilization use cotton as a writing material?
- 📝 Why did the USA invade Okinawa instead of one of the many other islands in southern Japan
- 📝 Why are the French and Indian Wars / Seven Years' War not considered WW 1?
- 📝 Why was the Roman Empire considered an empire rather than a kingdom (again)?
- 📝 Why is no one claiming the title of Caliph?
- 📝 Why is the Qing Dynasty in China considered Feudalistic?
- 📝 What are the problems archaeologists face in deciphering the Indus Valley writing?
- 📝 Why has there only been one dynasty in the history of Japan?
- 📝 What's the explanation for the similarities seen between the Rapa Nui script and the Indus Valley Script?
- 📝 Why is Alexander Hamilton considered the father of modern banking?
- 📝 Why the six hour gap between British and French declarations of war?
- 📝 Why was Truman considered a heavy underdog in the 1948 election?
- 📝 In the election of 1800, why did Burr end up with as many electoral votes as Jefferson, rather than one fewer?
- 📝 Were Serbs and Croats one people / tribe in the past? If not, why do they speak the same language?
- 📝 Why might one think that Australia gained independence from the UK in December 1920?
- 📝 Was there any Egyptian Pharaoh that was considered the one and only god that ancient Egyptians worshiped during his life?
- 📝 Why is Musselburgh considered the first golf course, when St. Andrews was where golf was first played?
- 📝 Wanderwort origins and the Indus Valley Civilization?
- 📝 Why was the arrival of the Hindenburg considered newsworthy?
- 📝 Why were countries which were clearly aligned to one of the two power blocs during cold war a part of the non-aligned movement?
- 📝 Why wasn't the 1953 Iranian coup d’état considered to be a violation of United Nations Charter?
- 📝 Why did the maize-based society that Spain found in the Central Valley of Mexico not dominate over Europe?
- 📝 Why were businesses operating as trusts at one point, and why did the practice fall out of favor?
- 📝 Why is Jackson's valley campaign considered a Confederate victory?
- 📝 Why is the storming of the Bastille considered the start of revolution, and not the storming of the Hôtel des Invalides?
- 📝 Why does Retsö claim that only members/clients of Arabian tribes were considered "real Muslims" in the Umayyad Caliphate before 750?
- 📝 Why was leek considered holy in the Edda?