The Decline of the Indus Valley Civilization

The podcast explores the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization, one of the most impressive ancient urban civilizations. The civilization flourished from around 2600 to 1900 BC and rivaled densely populated regions like Mesopotamia in size and population. The people of the Indus Valley were literate, had their own form of writing, and engaged in trade. They were skilled artisans, with fine crafts and goods highly sought after. The civilization was characterized by its urbanism, with major cities, towns, and villages connected in an integrated cultural and social space. They shared material cultures and ways of life, and there was a generally egalitarian and peaceful social structure. However, around 1900 BC, the civilization started to decline. The cause of the decline is attributed to climate change, particularly a series of droughts that affected agricultural productivity and led to reduced surpluses and vulnerability to hazards. As a result, populations decreased, cities were abandoned, and people shifted to rural areas for pastoralism and subsistence farming. The once-integrated cultural and social space fragmented, and the era of the Indus Valley Civilization came to an end.