An Ancient Communist Utopia? The Indus Valley Civilization

Was the Indus Valley Civilization a peaceful, egalitarian society? I'm skeptical.

Thanks as always to my amazing patreons!

Thumbnail by Ettore Mazza:

Thanks to Anna from The Dirt for doing the voiceovers!
Check out their archaeology podcast below!

Disclaimer: Use my videos as a rough guide to a topic. I am not an expert, I may get things wrong. This is why I always post my sources so you can critique my work and verify things for yourselves. Of course I aim to be as accurate as possible which is why you will only find reputable sources in my videos. Secondly, information is always subject to changes as new information is uncovered by archaeologists.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sources:

1 - Cork, Edward. “Peaceful Harappans? Reviewing the Evidence for the Absence of Warfare in the Indus Civilisation of North-West India and Pakistan (c. 2500-1900 BC).” Antiquity, vol. 79, no. 304, 2005, pp. 411–423., doi:10.1017/s0003598x0011419x.

2 - Possehl, Gregory L. The Indus Civilization: a Contemporary Perspective. Vistaar Publications, 2009.

3 - CONINGHAM, ROBIN. ARCHAEOLOGY OF SOUTH ASIA: from the Indus to Asoka, C.6500 Bce-200 Ce. CAMBRIDGE UNIV Press, 2018.

4 - McIntosh, Jane. A Peaceful Realm the Rise and Fall of the Indus Civilization. Westview Press, 2001.

5 - Jansen, M., 1994. Mohenjo-daro, type site of the earliest urbanization process in South Asia: ten years of research at Mohenjo-daro, Pakistan, and an attempt at synopsis, in A. Parpola and P. Koskikallio (eds), South
Asian Archaeology 1993. Helsinki:Suomalainen Tiedeaketemia, 263-280.

6 - Petersen, M. C., Aggressive architecture: fortification of the Indus valley in the mature Harappan phase. PhD thesis, Leiden University, 2012, p. 77.

7 - Nigam, R., et al. “Ancient Indians (Harappan Settlement) Were Aware of Tsunami/Storm Protection Measures:A New Interpretation of Thick Walls at Dholavira, Gujarat, India.” Current Science, vol. 111, no. 12, 2016, p. 2040., doi:10.18520/cs/v111/i12/2040-2043.


12 - Green, Adam S. “Killing the Priest-King: Addressing Egalitarianism in the Indus Civilization.” Journal of Archaeological Research, 2020, doi:10.1007/s10814-020-09147-9.

13 - Rissman, Paul. “Public Displays and Private Values: A Guide to Buried Wealth in Harappan Archaeology.” World Archaeology, vol. 20, no. 2, 1988, pp. 209–228., doi:10.1080/00438243.1988.9980068.


16 - Wankowski, Jacek. “The Distribution and Role of Harappan ‘Headdress’ Figurines and Harappan Socio-Political Organisation.”

17 - Frayne, Douglas R. Sargonic and Gutian Periods: 2334-2113 BC. Univ. of Toronto Press, 1993.

[StefanMilo]

Ok fine I'll change the thumbnail. I'm still throwing some Cyrillic in there though! Just correctly this time.

[nirajpatel]

Imagine being the leader of your civilization but staying humble and living in the same houses as everyone else, then 5000 years later some guy with a spoon roasts you for only having 70 pots

[sumitsen]

As an Indian my first instinct is that walls and weapons are needed in this subcontinent for protection against dangerous animals which were abundant. Weapons may have been needed for hunting also.
I have no idea if the civilization fought wars but they had to tackle wild animals for sure and this included rhinos, elephants and wild cats (tigers/lions).
Maybe that aspect deserves recognition in the narrative which otherwise seems presumed.
But in any case thanks for this. Excellent work.

[Iknowknow]

I’m 68 years old now and every time I’ve seen the image of the “priest-king” since I was a kid I wondered how they came to that conclusion if there is no decipherment of the script and no markings on the statue, I’m so glad you’ve brought this issue up. It reminds me of how all anomalous artifacts discovered are, or used to be, claimed as religious for absolutely no good reason.

[CogitoEdu]

Maybe they built the bastions to bash the water over the head with rocks!

[flamingoqueen]

Before the Mayan language was translated there was a school of thought that they lived in perfect peace and harmony. The inscriptions pretty much killed that idea.

[zakuro]

What I'm getting from this video is that either they were egalitarian, or they had strict hierarchies/a ruling class which functioned so differently from what we're used to seeing that we can't even recognise it as such. Either way, it's cool how unusual it is.

[daniellipko]

Imagine working really hard with Bronze Age tools on a big wall to protect your village and being really proud of it, just for a bunch of nerds a few thousand years later to say it couldn’t possibly have been built to keep out enemies

[vaibhavsingh]

The Indus valley civilization is most underrated civilization in the world.

The structured town plan with multistory buildings and proper drainage plan and street plan comparable to 18th century cities is uncomparable to any other 4000 years ago.

It was a proper urban civilization, even Egypt with its massive pyramids was nowhere close to Indus valley civilization.

[helsreach]

I am from central area of india called vidharbha when I saw the teracota toy of Indus velly civilization I realised I used play with same shape of teracota toy, even we have a festival named pola where we make bull and chariot of teracota and go each house for gift and toffies . Even our jewelry also look very similar to indius velly civilization .

[HistoryTime]

Fascinating. I see some potential similarities between the Indus Valley Civilisation and The Cucuteni-Trypillia Culture of Ancient Ukraine. Their ‘mega-sites’ are often thought to have been egalitarian without class distinction.

[tantibusdraws]

I love the fact that he not only holds a microphone....but also goes through the trouble of holding the spoon. That is dedication. 🥄

[Shade_Dragon]

There could actually be only 88 burials at one site because those buried were foreigners who happened to die in the city, for whom burial was their custom. The natives may have been very thoroughly cremated.

[couchpotatogaming]

This is the longest, most interesting "eh maybe" I've ever heard

[abiuniverse]

There were two burial styles mentioned in Rig Ved; one is the burial in the ground, and the other is with Fire God ( cremation ). That can be why you find a mismatch between no. of graves and population size.

[sanityd]

It is nice to see that one civilization spent its energy on housing its populace. Maybe one day Australia will try.

[swagilyph]

Me: Boy howdy he uploaded!

Stefan: YOU are poor.

[oldrabbit]

the 18m thick wall is definitely built for another purpose, with defense just a bonus. 18m is much thicker than a medieval castle wall, and can withstand cannon shots before they even have siege weapons.
Also, lacking a ruler whose ambition is to boss around other rulers could reduce the number of wars they fought (among each other), given how many wars in history can be boiled down to "king A wants more stuff from king B"

[admiralsquatbar]

Indus Elite: "I've been buried with 70 pots, I'm incredibly rich."
Chinese Emperor: "Slacker."

[Dinglesmckringles]

A peaceful civilization would still need walls and weapons for defence, especially when surrounded by violent neighbors