Articles on the decline and fall of what we know as the ancient Harappan or Indus Valley Civilization and the factors that might have led to its disappearance as a political or cultural entity after about 1900 BCE.
Excavations at the archaeological site of Harappa, Pakistan in 1987 and 1988 uncovered the remains of at least 92 individuals (84 adults and 8 juveniles), although only 19 were complete skeletons in primary contexts. >
An incisive look at the debate around this issue by one of India's foremost archaeological thinkers. Ratnagar looks at the issue in light of Indian Independence and the various political issues and currents that affect archaeological discourse and interpretations. She explains what the word "Aryan"… >
The archaeologist George F. Dales, who excavated at Mohenjo-daro in 1964, and hydrologist Robert L. Raikes propose a theory around the decline of the Indus civilization which involves large flooding and a back-up of the Indus for perhaps a century in ancient times. While not much evidence for this … >
A complex meta-analysis of data in a corner of northwestern India for what it can tell us about settlement patterns during the ancient Indus period and just after, when a host of factors, including possibly climate change, seem to have contributed to a re-allocation of populations between types of settlements. >
Another important and recent (October 2020) paper by Asko Parpola. He examines the 2018 finds from the Late Harappan site of Sanauli near Delhi in light of his research on early Indo-Aryan languages in the subcontinent and their origin in Central Asia. >
This highly technical and scientific paper brings together all the recent evidence from Dharamjali Cave in the Himalayas over a 230 year period around 2000 BCE, when the ancient Indus civilization was in decline, to show "that repeated intensely dry periods spanned multiple generations. The record highlights the deficits in winter and summer rainfall during the urban phase of the Indus Civilization, which prompted adaptation through flexible, self- reliant, and drought-resistant agricultural strategies." >
This 40 page paper presents an in-depth analysis aiming to elucidate the biological affiliations of individuals found in atypical burial contexts at Mohenjo-daro through craniometric studies. This is murky stuff - craniometric studies or "the measurement of the skull and facial structure" - becaus… >
This is a really important article in that it shows how modern scientific tools and techniques can be used to cast surprising light on the assumptions and conclusions [myths?] that are often drawn from the limited set of evidence archaeologists have to work with. >
This article, which has received widespread press coverage, provides a detailed climate and hydrological reconstruction of the Indus (Harappan) civilization, focusing on how cycles of river drought and fluctuating monsoon rainfall influenced its trajectory. >
Rita P. Wright, an archaeologist with long experience understanding the Indus areas around Harappa (see the Beas Settlement and Land Survey) looks at the complex evidence surrounding the decline of Indus civilization at the end of the third and beginning of the second millennium (around 2000 BCE and afterwards). >
