Duiker W.J., Spielvogel J.J. The Essential World History. Volume 1: To 1800

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The Persian Empire

After the collapse of the Assyrian Empire, the Chaldeans,

under their king Nebuchadnezzar II (605--562

B.C.E.), made

Babylonia the leading state in western Asia. N ebu-

chadnezzar rebuilt Babylon as the center of his empire,

giving it a reputation as one of the great cities of the ancient

world. But the splendor of Chaldean Babylonia prov ed to be

short-lived when Babylon fell to the P ersians in 539

B.C.E.

The Persians were an Indo-European-speaking people

who lived in southwestern Iran. Primarily nomadic, the

Persians were organized in tribes until the Achaemenid

family managed to unify them. One of its members, Cyrus

(559--530

B.C.E.), created a powerful Persian state that

stretched from Asia Minor in the west to western India in

the east. In 539, Cyrus entered Meospotamia and captured

Babylon. His treatment of Babylonia showed remarkable

restraint and wisdom. Babylonia was made into a Persian

province, but many government officials were kept in their

positions. Cyrus also issued an edict permitting the Jews,

who had been brought to Babylon in the sixth century

B.C.E., to return to Jerusalem with their sacred temple

objects and to rebuild their Temple as well.

To his contemporaries, Cyrus the Great deserved to be

called the Great. He must have been an unusual ruler for

his time, a man who demonstrated considerable wisdom

and compassion in the conquest and organization of his

empire. Unlike the Assyrian rulers of an earlier empire, he

had a reputation for mercy. Medes, Jews, Babylonians---all

accepted him as their legitimate ruler.

Cyrus’ suc c essors extended the territory of the Persian

Empire. H is son Cambyses (530--522

B.C.E.) undertook a

successful invasion of Egypt. Darius (521--486

B.C.E.) added

a new Persian pr o vince in western India that extended to

the Indus River and then mo v ed in to Europe, conquering

Thrace and creating the largest empire the world had yet

seen. His contact with the Greeks led him to undertake an

invasion of the Greek mainland (see Chapter 4).

THE ASSYRIAN MILITARY MACHINE

The Assyrians achieved a reputation for possess-

ing a mighty military machine. They were able to

use a variety of military tactics and were success-

ful whether they were waging guerrilla warfare,

fighting set battles, or laying siege to cities. In these three

selections, Assyrian kings boast of their military conquests.

King Sennacherib (704--681 B.C.E.) Describes a Battle

with the Elamites in 691

At the command of the god Ashur, the great Lord, I rushed upon

the enemy like the approach of a hurricane. ... I put them to rout

and turned them back. I transfixed the troops of the enemy with

javelins and arrows. ... I cut their throats like sheep. ... My pranc-

ing steeds, trained to harness, plunged into their welling blood as

into a river; the wheels of my battle chariot were bespattered with

blood and filth. I filled the plain with the corpses of their warriors

like herbage. ... As to the sheikhs of the Chaldeans, panic from my

onslaught overwhelmed them like a demon. They abandoned their

tents and fled for their lives, crushing the corpses of their troops as

they went. ... In their terror they passed scalding urine and voided

their excrement into their chariots.

King Sennacherib Describes His Siege of Jerusalem

in 701

As to Hezekiah, the Jew, he did not submit to my yoke, I laid

siege to 46 of his strong cities, walled forts, and the countless

small villages in their vicinity, and conquered them by means of

well-stamped earth-ramps, and battering-rams brought thus near to

the walls combined with the attack by foot soldiers, using mines,

breaches, as well as sapper work. I drove out of them 200,150 peo-

ple, young and old, male and female, horses, mules, donkeys, cam-

els, big and small cattle beyond counting, and considered them

booty. Himself I made a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence,

like a bird in a cage. I surrounded him with earthwork in order to

molest those who were leaving his city’s gate.

King Ashurbanipal (669--626 B.C.E.) Describes His

Treatment of Conquered Babylon

I tore out the tongues of those whose slanderous mouths had

uttered blasphemies against my god Ashur and had plotted against

me, his god-fearing prince; I defeated them completely. The others,

I smashed alive with the very same statues of protective deities with

which they had smashed my own grandfather Sennacherib---now fi-

nally as a belated burial sacrifice for his soul. I fed their corpses, cut

into small pieces, to dogs, pigs, ...vultures, the birds of the sky, and

also to the fish of the ocean. After I had performed this and thus

made quiet again the hearts of the great gods, my lords, I removed

the corpses of those whom the pestilence had felled, whose leftovers

after the dogs and pigs had fed on them were obstructing the streets,

filling the places of Babylon, and of those who had lost their lives

through the terrible famine.

Based on their own descriptions, what did Assyrian kings

believe was important for military success? Do you think their

accounts may be exaggerated? Why?

24 CHAPTER 1 THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONS: THE PEOPLES OF WESTERN ASIA AND EGYPT

Civil Administration and the Military Darius strength-

ened the basic structure of the Persian government by

creating a more rational division of the empire into

twenty provinces called satrapies. Each province was

ruled by a governor or satrap, literally a ‘‘protector of the

kingdom.’’ Satraps collected tributes, were responsible for

justice and security, raised military levies for the royal

army, and normally commanded the military forces

within their satrapies. In terms of real power, the satraps

were miniature kings who created courts imitative of the

Great King’s.

An efficient system of communication was crucial to

sustaining the Persian Empire. Well-maintained roads

facilitated the rapid transit of military and government

personnel. One in particular, the so-called Royal Road

(see Map 1.5), stretched from Sardis, the center of Lydia

in Asia Minor, to Susa, the chief capital of the Persian

Empire. Like the Assyrians, the Persians established way

stations equipped with fresh horses for the king’s

messengers.

In this vast administrative system, the Persian king

occupied an exalted position. All subjects were the king’s

servants, and he, the Great King, was the source of all

justice, possessing the power of life and death over ev-

eryone. At its height, much of the power of the Persian

Empire depended on the military. By the time of Darius,

the Persian monarchs had created a standing army of

professional soldiers. This army was truly international in

character, composed of contingents from the various

peoples who made up the empire. At its core were a

cavalry force of ten thousand and an elite infantry force of

the same size known as the Immortals because they were

never allowed to fall below ten thousand in number.

When one was killed, he was immediately replaced.

After Darius, Persian kings became more and more

isolated at their courts, surrounded by luxuries paid for

by the immense quantities of gold and silver that flowed

into their treasuries, located in the capital cities. Both

their hoarding of wealth and their later overtaxation of

their subjects are seen as crucial factors in the ultimate

weakening of the Persian Empire.

Persian Religion: Zoroastrianism Of all the Persians’

cultural contributions, the most original was their reli-

gion, Zoroastrianism. According to Persian tradition,

Zoroaster was born in 660

B.C.E. After a period of wan-

dering and solitude, he experienced revelations that

caused him to be revered as a prophet of the ‘‘true reli-

gion.’’ His teachings were eventually written down in the

third century

B.C.E. in the Zend Avesta, the sacred book of

Zoroastrianism.

CHRONOL OGY

Early Empires

The Assyrians

Height of power 700

B.C.E.

Fall of Nineveh 612

B.C.E.

Empire destroyed 605

B.C.E.

The Persians

Unification under Achaemenid dynasty 600s

B.C.E.

Conquests of Cyrus the Great 559--530

B.C.E.

Cambyses and conquest of Egypt 530--522

B.C.E.

Reign of Darius 521--486

B.C.E.

Darius, the Great King. Darius ruled the Persian Empire from 521

to 486

B.C.E. He is shown here on his throne in Persepolis, a new capital

city that he built. In his right hand, Darius holds the royal staff. In his left

hand, he grasps a lotus blossom with two buds, a symbol of royalty.



The Art Archive/Gianni Dagli Orti

THE RISE OF NEW EMPIRES 25

Zoroaster’s spiritual message was basically mono-

theistic. To Zoroaster, Ahuramazda (the ‘‘Wise Lord’’)

was the only god, and the religion he preached was the

only perfect one. Ahuramazda was the supreme deity,

‘‘creator of all things.’’ According to Zoroaster, Ahura-

mazda also possessed qualities that all humans should

aspire to, such as good thought, right, and piety. Al-

though Ahuramazda was supreme, he was not unop-

posed, thus adding a dualistic element to Zoroastrianism.

At the beginning of the world, the good spirit of Ahura-

mazda was opposed by the evil spirit (later identified with

Ahriman).

H umans also pla yed a role in this cosmic struggle

between good and evil. Ahuramazda, the creator, gave all

humans free will and the power to choose between right

and wrong. The good person chooses the right way of

Ahuramazda. Zoroaster taught that there would be an end

to the struggle between good and evil. Ahuramazda would

eventually triumph, and at the last judgment at the end of

the world, th e final se paration of good and evil would

occur. Individuals, too, would be judged. Each soul faced a

final evaluation of its actions. If a person had performed

good deeds, he or she would achieve paradis e; if evil

deeds, the soul would be thrown into an abyss of torment.

CONCLUSION

THE PEOPLES OF MESOPOTAMIA and North Africa, like

the peoples of India and China, built the first civilizations. They

developed cities and struggled with the problems of organized states.

They developed writing to keep records and to preserve and create

literature. They constructed monumental architecture to please their

gods, symbolize their power, and glorify their culture. They

developed new political, military, social, and religious structures to

deal with the basic problems of human existence and organization.

These first literate civilizations left detailed records that allow us to

view how they grappled with three of the fundamental problems that

humans have pondered: human relationships, the nature of the

universe, and the role of divine forces in the cosmos. Although other

peoples would provide different answers from those of the

Mesopotamians and the Egyptians, the people of these cultures posed

the questions, gave answers, and wrote them down. Human memory

begins with the creation of civilizations.

TIMELINE

3000 B.C.E.

2500 B.C.E. 2000 B.C.E. 1500 B.C.E. 1000 B.C.E. 500 B.C.E.

Emergence of Sumerian city-states

Mesopotamia

Egypt

Hebrews

Persians

Emergence of

Egyptian

civilization

Great Pyramid

Babylonian kingdom

Age of prophets in Israel

Zoroastrianism

Old Kingdom Middle Kingdom New Kingdom

Code of Hammurabi

The Israelites

Height of

Persian power

26 CHAPTER 1 THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONS: THE PEOPLES OF WESTERN ASIA AND EGYPT

SUGGESTED READING

The First Humans The following works are of considerable

value in examining the prehistory of humankind: B. Fagan, People

of the Earth: An Introduction to World Prehistory, 12th ed. (New

York, 2006); S. Mithen, After the Ice: A Global Human History,

20,000--5000

B.C. (Cambridge, Mass., 2006); and N. Wade, Before the

Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors (New York,

2006). For studies of the role of women in prehistory, see E. Barber,

Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years (New York, 1994), and J. M.

Adovasio, O. Soffer, and J. Page, The Invisible Sex: Uncovering the

True Roles of Women in Prehistory (New York, 2007).

Ancient Near East An excellent reference tool on the ancient

Near East can be found in P. Bienkowski and A. Millard, eds.,

Dictionary of the Ancient Near East (Philadelphia, 2000). A very

competent general survey of the ancient Near East is M. Van de

Mieroop, A History of the Ancient Near East, ca. 3000--323

B.C.,

2nd ed. (Oxford, 2006). For a detailed survey, see A. Kuhrt, The

Ancient Near East, c. 3000--330

B.C., 2 vols. (London, 1996). On the

economic and social history of the ancient Near East, see D. C.

Snell, Life in the Ancient Near East (New Haven, Conn., 1997).

Ancient Mesopotamia General works on ancient

Mesopotamia include J. N. Postgate, Early Mesopotamia: Society

and Economy at the Dawn of History (London, 1992), and

S. Pollack, Ancient Mesopotamia (Cambridge, 1999). A beautifully

illustrated survey can be found in M. Roaf, Cultural Atlas of

Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East (New York, 1996). For a

reference work on daily life, see S. Bertman, Handbook to Life in

Ancient Mesopotamia (New York, 2003).

Ancient Egypt For a good introduction to ancient Egypt, see

the beautifully illustrated works by M. Hayes, The Egyptians (New

York, 1997); D. P. Silverman, ed., Ancient Egypt (New York, 1997);

and T. G. H. James, Ancient Egypt (Ann Arbor, Mich., 2005). Other

general surveys include N. Grant, The Egyptians (New York, 1996),

and I. Shaw, ed., The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (New York,

2000). An important study on women is G. Robins, Women in

Ancient Egypt (Cambridge, Mass., 1993). On the interaction of the

Egyptians with the Nubians and other peoples in Africa south of

Egypt, see D. B. Redford, From Slave to Pharaoh: The Black

Experience of Ancient Egypt (Baltimore, 2004).

Indo-Europeans On Indo-European-speaking peoples, see

D. W. Anthony, The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze

Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World

(Princeton, N.J., 2007).

The Phoenicians For a good account of Phoenician domestic

history and overseas expansion, see D. Harden, The Phoenicians,

rev. ed. (Harmondsworth, England, 1980). See also M. E. Aubet, The

Phoenicians and the West: Politics, Colonies and Trade, 2nd ed.

(Cambridge, 2001), and G. Markoe, Phoenicians (London, 2000).

Ancient Israel There is an enormous literature on an cient

Israel. Two good studies on the archaeological aspects are A. Mazar,

Archaeology of the Land of the Bible (New York, 1992), and A. Ben-

Tor, ed., The Archaeology of A ncient Israel (New Haven, Conn.,

1992). See also N. Silberman, The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s

New Vision of Ancient Israel (New York, 2002). For historical

narratives, see the survey by M. Grant, The History of Ancient Israel

(NewYork,1984),andH. Sha nks, Ancient Israel: A Short History

from Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Templ e, rev. ed.

(Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1998). For a general study on the religion of

Israel, see W. J. Do orly, The Religion of Israel (New York, 1997). On

the origins of the Israelites, see W. G. Dever , Who Were the Early

Israelites and Where Di d Th ey Come From? (Grand Rapids, Mi ch.,

2003).

The Assyrian and Persian Empires A detailed account of

Assyrian political, economic, social, military, and cultural history is

H. W. F. Saggs, The Might That Was Assyria (London, 1984). On the

Pe rsian Empire, see J. M. Cook, The Persian Empire (New York, 1983);

P. Briant, From C yrus to Alexander: A History of the Pe rsian Empire

(Winona Lake, Ind., 2004); and L. Allen, The Persian Empire (Chicago,

2005). On the history of Zoroastrianism, see S. A. Nigosian, The

Zoroastrian Fai th: Tradition and Modern Resear ch (New York, 1993).

By the middle of the second millennium B.C.E., the creative

impulse of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations was

beginning to wane. Around 1200

B.C.E., the decline of the Hittites

and the Egyptians had created a power vacuum that allowed a

number of small states to emerge and flourish temporarily. All of

them were eventually overshadowed by the rise of the great empires

of the Assyrians and the Persians. The Assyrian Empire had been the

first to unite almost all of the ancient Middle East. Even larger was

the empire of the Great Kings of Persia. The many years of peace

that the Persian Empire brought to the Middle East facilitated trade

and the general well-being of its peoples. It is no wonder that many

peoples expressed their gratitude for being subjects of the Great

Kings of Persia. Among these peoples were the Israelites, who

created no empire but nevertheless left an important spiritual

legacy. The evolution of monotheism created in Judaism one of the

world’s great religions; moreover, Judaism influenced the develop-

ment of both Christianity and Islam.

The Persians had also extended their empire to the Indus

River, which brought them into contact with another river valley

civilization that had developed independently of the civi lizations

in the Middle East and Egypt. It is to South Asia that we now

turn.

Visit the website for The Essential World History to access study

aids such as Flashcards, Cr itical Thinking Exercises, and

Chapter Quizzes:

www.cengage.com/history/duikspiel/essentialworld6e

CONCLUSION 27

CHAPTER 2

ANCIENT INDIA

CHAPTER OUTLINE

AND FOCUS QUESTIONS

The Emergence of Civilization in India:

Harappan Society

What were the chief features of Harappan civilization,

and in what ways was it similar to the civilizations that

arose in Egypt and Mesopotamia?

The Arrival of the Aryans

What were some of the distinctive features of the class

system introduced by the Aryan peoples, and what effect

did the class system have on Indian civilization?

Escaping the Wheel of Life:

The Religious World of Ancient India

What are the main tenets of Hinduism and Buddhism,

and how did each religion influence Indian civilization?

The Rule of the Fishes: India After the Maur yas

Why was India unable to maintain a unified empire in

the first millennium

B.C.E., and how was the Mauryan

Empire temporarily able to overcome the tendencies

toward disunit y?

The Exuberant World of Indian Culture

In what ways did the culture of ancient India resemble

and differ from the cultural experience of ancient

Mesopotamia and Egypt?

CRITICAL THINKING

What are some of the key factors that explain why India

became one of the first regions to create an advanced

technological society in the ancient world? To what

degree does it merit comparison with Mesopotamia and

Egypt as t he site of the first civilizations?

Krishna and Arjuna preparing for battle

ARJUNA WAS DESPONDENT as he prepared for battle. In

the opposing army were many of his friends and colleagues, some of

whom he had known since childhood. In despair, he turned for ad-

vice to Krishna, his chariot driver, who, unknown to Arjuna, was in

actuality an incarnation of the Indian deity Vishnu. ‘‘Do not despair

of your duty,’’ Krishna advised his friend.

To be born is certain death,

to the dead, birth is certain.

It is not rig ht that you should sorrow

for what cannot be avoided. . . .

If you do not fight this just battle

you will fail in your own law

and in your honor,

and you will incur sin.

Krishna’s advice to Arjuna is contained in the Bhagavad Gita,

one of India’s most sacred classical writings, and reflects one of the

key tenets in Indian philosophy---the belief in reincarnation, or re-

birth of the soul. It also points up the importance of doing one’s

duty without regard for the consequences. Arjuna was a warrior,

and according to Aryan tribal tradition, he was obliged to follow the



The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin/

The Bridgeman Art Library

The Emergence of Civilization

in India: Harappan Society

Focus Question: What were the chief features of

Harappan civilization, and in what ways was it similar

to the civilizations that arose in Eg ypt and

Mesopotamia?

The vast region of the Indian subcontinent is home to a

rich mixture of peoples: people speaking one of the lan-

guages in the Dravidian family, who probably descended

from the Indus River culture that flourished at the dawn

of Indian civilization, more than four thousand years ago;

Aryans, descended from the pastoral peoples who flooded

southward from Central Asia in the second millennium

B.C.E.; and hill peoples, who may have lived in the region

prior to the rise of organized societies and thus may have

been the earliest inhabitants of all.

Although today this beautiful mosaic of peoples and

cultures has been brok en up into a number of separate in-

dependent states, the region still possesses a coherent history

that despite its internal diversity is r ecog nizably Indian.

A Land of Diversity

India was and still is a land of diversity, which is evident in

its languages and cultures as well as in its physical char-

acteristics. India possesses an incredible array of languages.

It has a deserved reputation, along with the Middle East,

as a cradle of religion. Two of the world’s major religions,

Hindui sm and Buddhism, origin ated in India.

In its size and diversity, India seems more like a

continent than a single country. That diversity begins

with the geographic environment. The Indian subconti-

nent, shaped like a spade hanging from the southern ridge

of Asia, is composed of a number of core regions. In the

far north are the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain

ranges, home to the highest mountains in the world.

Directly south of the Himalayas and the Karakoram range

is the rich valley of the Ganges, India’s ‘‘holy river’’ and

one of the core regions of Indian culture. To the west is

the Indus River valley. Today, the latter is a relatively arid

plateau that forms the backbone of the modern state of

Pakistan, but in ancient times, it enjoyed a more balanced

climate and served as the cradle of Indian civilization.

South of India’s two major river valleys lies the

Deccan, a region of hills and an upland plateau that ex-

tends from the Ganges valley to the southern tip of the

Indian subcontinent. The interior of the plateau is rela-

tively hilly and dry, but the eastern and western coasts are

occupied by lush plains, which are historically among the

most densely populated regions of India. Off the south-

eastern coast is the island known today as Sri Lanka. Al-

though Sri Lanka is now a separate country quite distinct

politically and culturally from India, the island’s history is

intimately linked with that of its larger neighbor.

Harappan Civilization: A Fascinating Enigma

In the 1920s, archaeologists discovered agricultural set-

tlements dating back well over six thousand years in the

lower reaches of the Indus River valley in modern Paki-

stan. Those small mudbrick villages eventually gave rise to

the sophisticated human communities that historians call

Harappan civilization. Although today the area is rela-

tively arid, during the third and fourth millennia

B.C.E., it

evidently received much more abundant rainfall, and the

valleys of the Indus River and its tributaries supported a

thriving civilization that may have covered a total area of

over 600,000 square miles, from the Himalayas to the

coast of the Indian Ocean. More than seventy sites have

been unearthed since the area was first discovered in the

1850s, but the main sites are at the two major cities,

Harappa, in the Punjab, and Mohenjo-Daro, nearly

400 miles to the south near the mouth of the Indus River

(see Map 2.1).

30 CHAPTER 2 ANCIENT INDIA

code of his class. ‘‘There is more joy in doing one’s own duty

badly,’’ advised Krishna, ‘‘than in doing another man’s duty well.’’

In advising Arjuna to fulfill his obligation as a warrior, the au-

thor of the Bhagavad Gita, writing around the second century

B.C.E.

about a battle that took place almost a thousand years earlier, was

by implication urging all readers to adhere to their own responsibil-

ity as members of one of India’s major classes. Henceforth, this hi-

erarchical vision of a society divided into groups, each with clearly

distinct roles, would become a defining characteristic of Indian

history.

The Bhagavad Gita is part of a larger work, called the Mahab-

harata, that deals with the early history of the Aryan peoples who

entered India from beyond the mountains north of the Khyber Pass

between 1500 and 1000

B.C.E. When the Aryans, a pastoral people

speaking a branch of the Indo-European family of languages, arrived

in India, the subcontinent had already had a thriving civilization for

almost two thousand years. The Indus valley civilization, although

not as well known today as the civilizations of Mesopotamia and

Egypt, was just as old; and its political, social, and cultural achieve-

ments were also impressive. That civilization, known to historians

by the names of its two major cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro,

emerged in the late fourth millennium

B.C.E., flourished for over one

thousand years, and then came to an abrupt end about 1500

B.C.E.

It was soon replaced by a new society dominated by the Aryan

peoples. The new civilization that emerged represented a rich

mixture of the two cultures---Harappan and Aryan---and evolved

over the next three thousand years into what we know today

as India.

The origin of the Harappans is still debated, but

some scholars have suggested on the basis of ethno-

graphic and linguistic analysis that the language and

physical characteristics of the Harappans were similar to

those of the Dravidian-speaking peoples who live in the

Deccan Plateau today. If that is so, Harappa is not simply

a dead civilization but a part of the living culture of the

Indian subcontinent.

Political and Social Structu res In several respects,

Harappan civilization closely resembled the cultures of

Mesopotamia and the Nile valley. Like them, it probably

began in tiny farming villages scattered throughout the

river valley, some dating back to as early as 6500 or 7000

B.C.E. These villages thrived and grew until, by the middle

of the third millennium

B.C.E., they could support a

privileged ruling elite living in walled cities of consider-

able magnitude and affluence. The center of power was

the city of Harappa, which was surrounded by a brick

wall more than 40 feet thick at its base and more than 3

miles in circumference. The city was laid out on an es-

sentially rectangular grid, with some streets as wide as

30 feet. Most buildings were constructed of kiln-dried

mudbricks and were square in shape, reflecting the grid

pattern. At its height, the city may have had as many as

80,000 inhabitants, as large as some of the most populous

urban centers in Sumerian civilization.

Both Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were divided into

large walled neighborhoods, w ith narrow lanes separating

the rows of houses. Houses varied in size, with some as

high as three stories, but all followed the same general

plan based on a square courtyard surrounded by rooms.

Bathrooms featured an advanced drainage system, which

carried wastewater out to drains located under the streets

and thence to sewage pits beyond the city walls.

Unfortunately, Harappan writing has not yet been

deciphered, so historians know relatively little about the

organization of the Harappan state (see the comparative

essay ‘‘Writing and Civilization’’ on p. 33). Recent ar-

chaeological evidence, however, suggests that unlike its

contemporaries in Egypt and Sumer, Harappa was not a

centralized monarchy claiming divine origins but a col-

lection of more than fifteen hundred towns and cities

loosely connected by ties of trade and alliance and ruled

by a coalition of landlords and rich merchants. There

were no royal precincts or imposing burial monuments,

and there are few surviving stone or terra-cotta images

that might represent kings, priests, or military com-

manders. It is possible however, that religion had ad-

vanced beyond the stage of spirit worship to belief in a

single god or goddess of fertility. Presumably, priests at

court prayed to this deity to maintain the fertility of the

soil and guarantee the annual harvest.

As in Mesopotamia and Egypt, the Harappan econ-

omy was based primarily on agriculture. Wheat, barley,

rice, and peas were apparently the primary crops. The

presence of cotton seeds at various sites suggests that the

Harappan peoples may have been the first to master

the cultivation of this useful crop and possibly introduced

it, along with rice, to other societies in the region. But

Harappa also developed an extensive trading network that

extended to Sumer and other civilizations to the west.

Textiles and foodstuffs were apparently imported from

Sumer in exchange for metals such as copper, lumber,

precious stones, and various types of luxury goods. Much

of this trade was conducted by ship via the Persian Gulf,

although some undoubtedly went by land.

Harappan Culture Archaeological remains indicate that

the Indus valley peoples possessed a culture as sophisti-

catedinsomewaysasthatoftheSumerianstothewest.

The aesthetic quality of some Harappan pottery and

sculpture is superb , rivaling equivalent work produc ed

elsewhere. Sculpture was the Harappans’ highest artistic

achievement. Some artifacts possess a wonderful vitality of

expression. Fir ed clay seals show a deft touch in carving

Indus

River

Harappa

Mohenjo-Daro

AFGHANISTAN

PAKISTAN

CHINA

IRAN

Arabian

Sea

INDIA

0 200 400 Miles

0 200 400 600 Kilometers

Arrival of Aryans

Approximate limits of

Harappan civilization

MAP 2.1 Ancient Harappan Ci vilization. This map shows

the location of the first civilization that arose in the Indus

River valley, which today is located in Pakistan.

Basedonthismap,whydoyouthinkHarappan

civilization r esembled the civilizations of Mesopotamia and

Egypt?

View an animated version of this map or related maps

www .cengage.com/history/duikspiel/essentialworld6e

THE EMERGENCE OF CIV ILIZATION IN INDIA:HARAPPAN SOCIETY 31

animals such as elephants, tigers, rhinoceros, and antelope,

and fig ures made of copper or terra-cotta show a lively

sensitivity and a sense of grace and movement.

Writing was another achievement of Harappan so-

ciety and dates back at least to the beginning of the third

millennium

B.C.E. Unfortunately, the only surviving ex-

amples of Harappan writing are the pictographic symbols

inscribed on the clay seals. The script contained more

than four hundred characters, but most are too stylized to

be identified by their shape, and scholars have thus far

been unable to decipher them. There are no apparent

links with Mesopotamian scripts, although, like the

latter, Harappan writing may have been used primarily

to record commercial transactions. Until the script is

deciphered, much about the Harappan civ ilization

must remain, as one historian termed it, a fascinating

enigma.

The Arrival of the Aryans

Focus Question: What were some of the distinctive

features of the class system introduced by the Aryan

peoples, and what effect did the class system have on

Indian civilization?

One of the great mysteries of Harappan civilization is how

it came to an end. Archaeologists working at Mohenjo-

Daro have discovered signs of first a gradual decay and

The City of the Dead . Mohenjo-Daro (below) was one of the two major cities of the ancient

Indus River civilization. In addition to rows on rows of residential housing, it had a ceremonial center,

with a palatial residence and a sacred bath that was probably used by the priests as a means of

achieving ritual purity. The bath is reminiscent of water tanks in modern Hindu temples, such as the

Minakshi Temple in Madurai (on the right), where the faithful wash their feet prior to religious

devotion. Water was an integral part of Hindu temple complexes, as symbolically it represented

Vishnu’s cosmic ocean and Shiva’s reception of the holy Ganges on his head. Water was also a vital

necessity in India’s arid climate.



William J. Duiker

Harappan Se als. The Harappan peoples, like their contemporaries in

Mesopotamia, developed a writing system to record their spoken language.

Unfortunately, it has not yet been deciphered. Most extant examples of

Harappan writing are found on fired clay seals depicting human figures

and animals. These seals have been found in houses and were probably

used to identify the owners of goods for sale. Other seals may have been

used as amulets or have had other religious significance. Several depict

religious figures or ritualistic scenes of sacrifice.



Scala/Art Resource, NY



Borromeo/Art Resource, NY

32 CHAPTER 2 ANCIENT INDIA

then a sudden destruction of the city and its inhabitants

around 1500

B.C.E. Many of the surviving skeletons have

been found in postures of running or hiding, reminiscent

of the ruins of the Roman city of Pompeii, destroyed by

the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79

C.E.

These tantalizing signs of flight before a sudden ca-

tastrophe led some scholars to surmise that the city of

Mohenjo-Daro (the name was applied by archaeologists

and means ‘‘city of the dead’’) and perhaps the remnants

of Harappan civilization were destroyed by the Aryans,

nomads from the north, who arrived in the subcontinent

around the middle of the second millennium

B.C.E. Aryan

oral tradition recounts the occurrence of battles between

‘‘Aryans’’ and ‘‘Desas’’ in the second millennium

B.C.E.As

in Mesopotamia and the Nile valley, most contacts be-

tween pastoral and agricultural peoples proved unstable

COMPARATIVE ESSAY

RITING AND CIVILIZATION

In the year 3250 B.C.E., King Scorpion of Egypt

issued an edict announcing a major victory for his

army over rival forces in the region. Inscribed in

limestone on a cliff face in the Nile River valley,

that edict is perhaps the oldest surviving historical document

in the world today.

According to prehistorians, human beings began to create the first

spoken language about 50,000 years ago. As human beings spread

from Africa to other continents, that first system gradually frag-

mented into innumerable separate languages. By the time the agri-

cultural revolution began about 10,000 years ago, there were perhaps

nearly twenty distinct language families in existence around the

world (see Map 2.2).

During the later stages of the agricultural revolution, the first

writing systems also began to be created in various regions around

the world. The first successful efforts were apparently achieved in

Mesopotamia and Egypt, but knowledge of writing soon spread to

peoples along the shores of the Mediterranean and in the Indus

River valley in South Asia. Wholly independent systems were also

invented in China and Mesoamerica. Writing was used for a variety

of purposes. King Scorpion’s edict suggests that one reason was to

enable a ruler to communicate with his subjects on matters of offi-

cial concern. In other cases, the purpose was to enable human

beings to communicate with supernatural forces. In China and

Egypt, for example, priests used writing to communicate with the

gods. In Mesopotamia and in the Indus River valley, merchants used

writing to record commercial and other legal transactions. Finally,

writing was also used to present ideas in new ways, giving rise to

such early Mesopotamian literature as The Epic of Gilgamesh.

How did such early written languages evolve into the complex

systems in use today? In almost all cases, the first systems consisted

of pictographs, pictorial images of various concrete objects such as

trees, water, cattle, body parts, and the heavenly bodies. Eventually,

such signs became more stylized to facilitate transcription---much as

we often use a cursive script instead of block printing today. Finally,

and most important for their future development, these pictorial

images began to take on specific phonetic meaning so that they

could represent sounds in the written language. Most sophisticated

written systems eventually evolved to a phonetic script, based on an

alphabet of symbols to represent all sounds in the spoken language,

but others went only part way by adding phonetic signs to the indi-

vidual character to suggest pronunciation while keeping part of the

original pictograph to indicate meaning. Most of the latter systems,

such as hieroglyphics in Egypt and cuneiform in Mesopotamia,

eventually became extinct, but the ancient Chinese writing system

survives today, although in changed form.

What were some of the reasons why the first writing

systems were devised during the classical era? How did they

serve to promote the further development and evolution of the

first civilizations?

The Disk of Phaistos. Discovered on the island of Crete in 1980, this

mysterious clay object dating from the eighteenth century

B.C.E. contains

ideographs in a language that has not yet been deciphered.



The Art Archive/Heraklion Museum/Gainni Dagli Orti

THE ARRIVAL OF THE ARYANS 33