18 Major Indus Valley Civilization Sites And Their Findings

Indus Valley Civilization, one of the Bronze Age civilizations of the world, existed from 3300-1300 BCE in the Indian subcontinent. It grew on the banks of the Indus River extending from modern-day northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India. Indus Valley Civilization sites are divided into three phases – early Harappan (3300-2600 BCE), mature Harappan (2600-1900 BCE), and late Harappan (1900-1300 BCE). Their characteristics included a drainage system, craft production using precious and semi-precious stones, pottery, metallurgy, bone tools, and seals.

In This Article

1. Discovery Of The Indus Valley Civilization

2. List Of The Indus Valley Civilization Sites

• Harappa
• Mohenjo-Daro
• Allahdino
• Banawali
• Bet Dwarka
• Chanhudaro
• Dholavira
• Kalibangan
• Loteshwar
• Lothal
• Mandi
• Mehrgarh
• Nageshwar
• Rakhigarhi
• Rehman Dheri
• Ropar
• Shortugai
• Surkotada

3. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Discovery Of The Indus Valley Civilization

Archaeological excavations of the Indus Valley had a late start. It was first excavated in the 19th century, by when the Egyptian and Mesopotamian sites had already been excavated, studied, and their writing deciphered. James Lewis, who disguised himself as Charles Masson when he arrived in India, was the first to find the ancient city of Harappa in 1829 CE. However, he recorded it in his notes as a city built by Alexander the Great and left the site quickly. He published his findings on Harappa in his book Narrative of Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan, and the Punjab in 1842 CE.

Two years later, Alexander Burnes, sent by the East India Company to Indus for an assessment of the feasibility of water travel for the army, noted the baked bricks used in the construction of houses in Harappa and its reckless plunder by the local population. Many of these bricks served as track ballasts for railway tracks being laid in Punjab (1).

Sir Alexander Cunningham, who founded the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in 1861 CE, visited Harappa in 1853 and observed the brick walls of the settlement. He revisited the site after 1861 and noted that the top layer of the houses had been stripped. He began excavating the site and published his report in 1875 CE. Although he identified the Indus Script, which to date remains undeciphered, his excavation report was incomplete because he failed to establish any connection between Harappa and an ancient civilization, whose part it might be.

John Marshall, the director of the ASI in 1904, concluded, after he visited Harappa, that it was part of an ancient civilization and ordered the complete excavation of the site. At the same time, he became aware of another site a few miles away from Harappa that the locals called Mohenjo-Daro (the mound of the dead) due to animal and human bones and various artifacts found there.

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List Of The Indus Valley Civilization Sites

In 1921, Marshall appointed the ASI archaeologist, Daya Ram Sahni, to excavate the two mounds of the Harappan site. In 1922, a succession of archaeologists comprising D.R. Bhandarkar, R.D. Banerji, and M.S. Vats conducted a subsequent excavation of Mohenjo-Daro. In 1924, John Marshall announced in the Illustrated London News the discovery of a new ancient civilization “in the plains of the Indus” (1). Today, more than 1,000 Indus Valley sites have been excavated and studied. Let’s discuss the important sites of the Indus Valley Civilization and their major findings below.

“Three other scholars whose names I cannot pass over in silence, are the late Mr. R. D. Banerji, to whom belongs the credit of having discovered, if not Mohenjo-daro itself, at any rate, its high antiquity, and his immediate successors in the task of excavation, Messrs. M.S. Vats and K.N. Dikshit. … no one probably except myself can fully appreciate the difficulties and hardships which they had to face in the three first seasons at Mohenjo-daro” – John Marshall (2)

 

Name	Year	Phase	Year of Excavation	Excavator
Harappa	2600 to 1900-1500 BCE	Mature and Late Harappan	1921	Daya Ram Sahni
Mohenjo-Daro	2600 to1900 BCE	Mature Harappan	1922	R.D. Banerji
Allahdino	2500-2400 to 2000 BCE	Mature Harappan	1934	W.A. Fairservis
Banawali	2300 to 1700 BCE	Mature Harappan	1973	R.S. Bisht
Bet Dwarka	18th to 14th century BCE	Late Harappan	1981-82	S.R. Rao
Chanhudaro	4000 to 1700 BCE	All 3 phases	1931	N.G. Majumdar
Dholavira	3500 to 1800 BCE	All 3 phases	1967-68	J.P. Joshi
Kalibangan	2900 to 2000-1900 BCE	Early and Mature Harappan	1960	B.B. Lal
Loteshwar	6th to 3rd millennium BCE	Early Harappan	1990	M.S. University
Lothal	2400 to 1600 BCE	Mature and Late Harappan	1955-60	S.R. Rao
Mandi	Was part of IVC in 2000 BCE	Mature Harappan	2000	Discovered by local villagers
Mehrgarh	7000 to 2600 BCE	Early Harappan	1974	Jean-Fraçois Jarrige
Nageshwar	2450 to 1900 BCE	Mature Harappan	1984	J.M. Kenoyer and Kuldeep Bhan
Rakhigarhi	3200 to 1900 BCE	Early and Mature Harappan	1969	Suraj Bhan
Rehman Dheri	3300 to 1900 BCE	Early and Mature Harappan	1976	Farzand Ali Durrani
Ropar	2100 to 1400 BCE	Mature and Late Harappan	1953	Y.D. Sharma
Shortugai	2200 to 1600 BCE	Mature and Late Harappan	1975	J.C. Gardin, P. Gentille, and B. Lyonnet
Surkotada	2100 to 1700 BCE	Mature and Late Harappan	1964	J.P. Joshi

1. Harappa

The site of Harappa of the Indus Valley Civilization is located in the Sahiwal district of Punjab province in Pakistan and on the left bank of the now dry course of the Ravi River.

Major findings – 

• Coffin burials
• Six public wells
• Granaries 
• Workmen’s quarters
• Seals
• Pottery with Indus script
• Faience slag
• Cubical limestone weight
• Copper bullock cart
• Human anatomy statues made of sandstone
• Harappan sculpture of a male torso made from red sandstone
• Terracotta figurines
• A cemetery separate from the settlement
• Three phallic-shaped stone lingas

2. Mohenjo-Daro

It is another Harappan site located on the right bank of the Indus in the northern Sindh province of southern Pakistan. Both Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro have unearthed the citadel on the west and the Lower Town or residence in the east on elevated platforms. 

Major findings – 

• Great Bath
• Underground drainage system
• Granary
• Temple-like palace
• Ivory weight balance
• Unicorn seal
• A bronze statue of a dancing girl
• Pashupati seal
• Bronze statue of a buffalo
• Steatite statue of a bearded priest
• Assembly hall
• 3 cylindrical-shaped Mesopotamian-like seals
• Terracotta toys
• A piece of woven cloth
• Evidence of cotton agriculture and animal domestication

3. Allahdino

The smallest village of the Harappan civilization, Allahdino, is located east of Karachi, Pakistan.

Major findings – 

• Mudbrick houses on stone platforms
• Wells
• Copper objects
• Triangular terracotta cakes
• Seals
• Small terracotta jars filled with gold, silver, and bronze ornaments
• Belt with 36 carnelian beads
• Vessels and their pieces

4. Banawali 

Banawali is situated in Fatehabad, Haryana.

Major findings –

• Oval-shaped settlement
• Radial street
• Burnished gray ware decorated with motifs
• Good quality barley grains
• Toy plough
• Ivory comb
• Male and female figurines
• Tortoiseshell
• S-shaped jars, cooking vessels, painted earthen Harappan pots
• Beads 

5. Bet Dwarka

This inhabited island is situated at the mouth of the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat. 

Major findings – 

• Earthen pots
• Long protection wall
• Late Harappan seal
• Inscribed jar
• Mold of a coppersmith
• Copper fishhook
• Wrecked ships
• Stone anchors
• Conch shells
• Seals made on conch shells
• Potsherds with inscriptions
• Chert blades
• Pottery (3)

6. Chanhudaro

This archaeological site is located on the bank of the Indus River in the Nawabshah district of Sindh. It was a manufacturing area of the Indus Valley Civilization and is called the ‘Lancashire of ancient India’. Chanhudaro is the only Harappan site that has not revealed a citadel.

Major findings –

• Evidence of bead making and bangle factory
• Evidence for the use of kajal and lipstick
• Inkpot
• Impressions of a cart with a seated driver
• Footprint of a dog chasing a cat
• Warehouses made from baked bricks
• Evidence of shell working and ladle-making
• Harappan seals
• Copper knives, fish hooks, spears, axes, tools, and razors
• Vessels and dishes
• Terracotta cart models and whistling bird
• Broken statue of a male spear thrower
• Evidence of the cultivation of sesame and peas
• Iron objects (4)
• Traces of cotton cloth preserved on silver or bronze objects (4)

7. Dholavira

Dholavira is one of the largest Indus Valley sites located in the Kutch district of Gujarat. Of all the sites of the Indus Valley Civilization, it is the only city that was divided into three parts – citadel, middle town, and lower town. The city planning was in the shape of a parallelogram. 

Major findings –

• Large step well
• Several large reservoirs, dams, and embankments
• Huge circular structures made of mud bricks assumed to be a grave or memorial
• Use of rocks in construction
• Water harnessing system
• Stadium
• Sandstone structure of a male phallus
• Signboard
• A figurine of a chariot drawn by a pair of bullocks and driven by nude men
• Black and red ware pottery
• Ornaments
• Harappan seals with animal figures and no script
• Bronze hammer and hand-held mirror
• Chisel
• Gold ear stud
• Copper and shell bangles
• Bones of humped animals

8. Kalibangan

This Harappan site in India is located on the banks of the Ghaggar River, which is considered to be a part of the ancient Saraswati River, in the Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan.

Major findings –

• World’s first plowed fields
• Double citadel
• Lower fortified town
• Wooden drainage system
• Fire altars
• Small circular pits filled with urns and pottery
• Sun-dried bricks
• Wooden plough
• Camel bones
• Burnt bangles
• Evidence of the occurrence of an earthquake
• Copper ox
• Evidence of boustrophedon style (writing style where lines are written from left to right and right to left in alternate lines)
• Chalcedony and agate blades
• Beads of shell, steatite, and carnelian
• Bangles
• Terracotta toy cart, broken bull, and wheel
• Unusual axe
• Seals
• Cylindrical measuring rod
• Clay ball with human figures
• Evidence of peas and chickpeas
• Burials

“Well-regulated streets (were) oriented almost invariably along with the cardinal directions, thus forming a grid-iron pattern. (At Kalibangan) even the widths of these streets were in a set ratio, i.e. if the narrowest lane was one unit in width, the other streets were twice, thrice and so on. (…) Such a town-planning was unknown in contemporary West Asia.” – B.B. Lal (5)

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9. Loteshwar

It is an early Harappan site located on a high sand dune on the left bank of the Khari River in the Patan district of Gujarat. 

Major findings –

• Several pits filled with ashy soil, animal bones, and potsherds
• Redware pottery

10. Lothal

This archaeological site is located near the Gulf of Khambhat and on the bank of Sabarmati River in Gujarat. It consists of one of the oldest docks in the country. Historians and archaeologists refer to Lothal as the ‘Manchester of the Harappan Civilization’.

Major findings –

• Single citadel
• A mud-brick house with the entrance facing the street
• Bead manufacturing factory
• Couple burial
• Fire altar
• Ivory weight balance
• Seal depicting the story of a clever fox
• Mesopotamian ivory seals
• Painted jars
• Button seal 
• Rice husk
• Chess game
• Terracotta ship and horse
• Copper dog

11. Mandi 

Until 2000, this site was nothing but a mound of mud that existed on the border of a village in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. But in June of the same year, the owner of the land where the mound stood ordered the villagers to use the mud from the mound. While removing the mud, three women villagers discovered a copper urn filled with gold ornaments. Further digging revealed more such urns containing gold ornaments. According to the authorities’ estimate, 500 kg of treasure was uncovered.

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12. Mehrgarh

It is located near the Bolan Pass and to the west of the Indus River in Pakistan. It was part of an earlier culture which later merged into the Harappan civilization.

Major findings –

• Large brick platform
• Earliest known center of agriculture
• A pottery production area
• Use of firing techniques in pottery
• Terracotta figurines and bulls
• Flint knapping
• Tanning
• Bead production
• Metal working
• Female figurines called “Mother Goddess”

13. Nageshwar

This site is located on the southern shore of the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat.

Major findings –

• Shell working site
• Shell bangle, ladle, and inlay

14. Rakhigarhi

This is the largest site of the Indus Valley Civilization in the Hisar district of Haryana.

Major findings –

• Mud brick residential houses 
• Platform
• Granary with 7 rectangular chambers
• Drainage system
• Urbanized sewage system
• Pottery 
• Seals
• Traces of cotton cloth on bronze and silver artifacts
• Bronze Harappan toys
• Potsherds with different patterns
• Fishnets
• Shell bangles
• Terracotta animal figurines and statues

15. Rehman Dheri

Rehman Dheri is in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

Major findings –

• Eroded kilns
• Scatters of slag
• Bead industry
• Pottery
• Stone and metal tools
• Seals

16. Ropar

It is a Harappan site located on the banks of the Sutlej River.

Major findings –

• Stone and soil buildings
• Oval-shaped pit burials
• Dog bones along with human bones in graves
• Rectangular mud-brick chamber
• Harappan pottery
• Cert blades
• Copper axe
• Beads and faience
• Terracotta and steatite seal
• Terracotta bangles and beads
• Sun-baked bricks

17. Shortugai

It was the trading colony of the Harappans located on the Oxus River in the Darqad District of northern Afghanistan near the lapis lazuli mines. Although the northernmost settlement of the Indus Valley, not a single characteristic of the Harappan cultural complex is missing from it (6).

Major findings –

• Carnelian and lapis lazuli beads
• Bronze items
• Terracotta figurines
• Seal with a short inscription and a rhinoceros motif
• Clay models of cattle pulling carts
• Painted pottery
• Drill heads
• Shell bangles
• Plough field with flax seed

18. Surkotada

The archaeological site of Surkotada was located in Rapar Taluka of Kutch district in Gujarat.

Major findings – 

• Mudbrick citadel
• Residential complex
• Defense wall
• Fortress of mud lump
• Features Harappan drainage system
• Copper artifacts
• Painted pottery with the Indus alphabet inscribed on it
• Harappan seals
• Copper beads and bangles
• Harappan toys
• Clay tanks
• Horse, elephant, and wolf bones
• Evidence of presence of mongoose

The Indus Valley Civilization was a Bronze Age settlement that originated around the Indus River in the Indian subcontinent. It is divided into three phases and all the major sites of the Indus Valley Civilization correspond to one or the other phase. Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were the first excavated sites of the civilization that confirmed the existence of a new ancient era in India. In the years that followed, many other sites, such as Rakhigarhi, Lothal, Chanhudaro, Mehrgarh, and many others, have been excavated that tell us more about the Harappan age. All the sites of the Indus Valley Civilization have yielded seals, pottery, beads, and animal bones that have helped historians and archaeologists find the missing piece of Southeast Asian history and learn about one of the most important and earliest civilizations of the subcontinent.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Which is the latest Indus Valley civilization site?

Rakhigarhi is the most recently excavated Harappan site.

2. Which Indian state has the most number of Harappan sites?

Gujarat has the largest number of Harappan sites. It has yielded sites belonging to all three phases.

3. Which is the oldest Harappan site?

According to the C-14 dating report issued by the ASI, the oldest Harappan site is at the Bhirrana village in Fatehabad district. Archaeologists have traced its origin back to 7570-6200 BCE.

4. Which site is called the mini-Harappa?

Lothal is referred to as the mini-Harappa as it has also yielded the evidence of a workmen’s quarters, cemetery, and workshop for stone manufacturing. The layout of the ancient town resembles that of Harappa.

5. Who was the chief god of the Indus Valley Civilization?

Pashupati is regarded as the chief god of the Indus Valley Civilization as it is the only seal with such engraving. The Mother Goddess is referred to as the Shakti, who might have been worshipped alongside Pashupati as his female counterpart.

Sources

1. Wright, Rita P., The Ancient Indus: Urbanism, Economy, and Society, Cambridge  University Press, 2009.
2. Marshall, Sir John (ed), Mohenjo Daro and the Indus Civilization, Vo. 1, London, Arthur Probsthain, 1931.
3. Rao, S.R., Excavation of Submerged Ports – Dwarka a Case Study, in Marine Archaeology of Indian Ocean Countries, Goa, National Institute of Oceanography, 1988
4. McIntosh, Jane, The Ancient Indus Valley: New Perspectives, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2008.
5. Lal, B.B., The Earliest Civilization of South Asia: Rise, Maturity, and Decline, New Delhi, Aryan Books International, 1997
6. Sergent, Bernard, Genèse de l’Inde, Paris, Payot, 1997