WORLD OF SCIENCE
Early engineers
DR. T. V. PADMA
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The people of the Indus civilisation had highly advanced architectural and engineering skills.
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In 1826, Lewis, a deserter from the British Army, came across ruins in the Northwest of the Indian subcontinent. He had no idea these were the remains of a city built by the Indus civilisation. In 1911, an Indian called Bhandarkar discovered a second Indus metropolis. Half a century later, Joshi, an Indian archaeologist, found another.
How can archaeologists tell that these sites, now called Harappa, Mohenjodaro, and Dholavira, were once cities, not towns or villages? How do they know if a site they are excavating was once a bustling metropolis?
Cities and villages
Modern cities are generally bigger than villages and more people live in them. Villagers often work as farmers, whereas merchants and business people prefer cities. Cities have many large public buildings such as warehouses, workshops, and government buildings. Urban centres are also more economically powerful and politically important than villages and towns because they function as centres of trade. The ancient cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation showed these characteristics.
The people of the Indus built many ancient cities — not just Harappa, Mohenjodaro and Dholavira, but also others such as Rakhigari, Ganeriwala and Lothal. At its height, the civilisation extended over an area about the same as that of today's France. It was the largest of its time, and its golden age lasted for about 700 years (counting from the time the cities attained their peak to just before they began to decline). All in all, about 2000 human settlements have been excavated (in India and Pakistan) that belong to this period, including cities, towns, and villages.
The cities and towns built by this civilisation provide evidence that the people of the Indus had highly advanced architectural and engineering skills.
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