What is Culture and Civlization?

The cradle of civilization is one of the five probable locations where civilization first emerged. According to many experts, civilization began in what is called the Fertile Crescent (Mesopotamia), and then spread to other areas due to a nomadic lifestyle. But this conventionally held view is disputed by several scholars and archaeologists. They the viewpoint that there is no single cradle of civilization, but independent growth of civilization occurred in quite a few areas, which were Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley, Shang (Yellow River Valley), and Mesoamerica and Andean South America. The reason for this belief in multiple cradles of civilization has resulted from observation, and study of relics of the period. These remainder point out how different features developed sporadically and independently in these different civilizations. The communication between different communities due to nomadic lifestyles led to the development of common systems and techniques in agriculture, pottery, metal work, etc. It is therefore difficult to specifically state which is the oldest civilization, as there is no explicit answer to the question.
Many experts, as mentioned above, suppose that Mesopotamia being located in the Fertile Crescent, is the most ancient civilization in the world. The motive for this is that Mesopotamia is where the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers touch, manufacture the area tremendously apt for cultivation. Many agrarian societies are therefore believed to have been established here. Also since the Ubaid, Sumerian, Akkad, Babylon, and Assyrian civilizations are all positioned in this area, Mesopotamia is widely considered to be the oldest civilization. Settlements can be traced in Mesopotamia to the start of the Early figure age, which is much before 7000 BC. The first sites were in Jarmo, and the earliest cities were established in Sumer under the Uruk period. Mesopotamia, over the years, has been ruled by the Hellenists, Persians, Mongols, and Turks. Mesopotamia is the area that we now identify as Iraq.

Culture and Civlization

One of the oldest civilizations in the world, there is archaeological and anthropological evidence that points towards the existence of a settlement in the area as early as 10000 BC, but there is no definite substantiation to determine the time period. The settlement then took to farming as their main source of sustenance, but remnants of another conclusion found during the area, that can be dated back to the same period, shows practice of hunting and fish. It is indicated by studies that the land around Sahara was not as arid as it is today and was perfect for grazing ground. It was around 2500 BC that the settlements moved towards the Nile due to change in climate and inhospitable situation, where the nation was established as a more complex society. The civilization of Ancient Egypt has been responsible for several lasting legacies for humankind as a whole, including pyramids, mathematical systems, practice of medicine, glass making techniques, and also paper, in its earliest form.
Settlements have known to exist in the area since before 6000 BC, as there is substantiation that has been found that dates back to this age. Studying the history of the Indus valley society tells us that this was a well-developed society. These settlement were very self adequate with leftovers of granaries, burial tombs, drills for stones and copper, etc., found in the area near here day Balochistan in Pakistan. The Indus Valley Civilization, which saw complex societal structures, have known to exist since 4000 BC, with the major cities being Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. Both these cities have been bare to be large cities with many arrangement of great degree inside city limits. The decimal portion system is one of the gifts of the Indus Valley Civilization to the modern-day world. Excavation of the site that are believed to be a part of the development have been on since 1920 and the most recent discovery was in 1999.
China is heralded as the world's oldest continuous civilization. Pre-civilized settlement relics dating back to 7000 BC have been found in China. In fact, in some cases, the date variance ranges between 9000 BC and 5500 BC. There is evidence of farming practice, pottery, craft work, and even animal husbandry. The people can be traced back to the establishment of city states in the Yellow River Valley around 2200 BC. But this claim is borderline with the first dynasty that is archaeologically definable being traced to the Shang Dynasty of Ancient China which started its reign wherever around 1750 BC. There is very little provable data about earlier settlement in the area due to the lack of written records or any such documents.
The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was a Bronze Age civilization (3300–1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900 BCE) that was located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, consisting of what is now mainly current Pakistan and northwest India Flourishing around the Indus River basin, the civilization extended east into the Ghaggar-Hakra River valley and the upper reaches Ganges-Yamuna Doab; it comprehensive west to the Makran coast of Balochistan, north to northeastern Afghanistan and south to Daimabad in Maharashtra. The civilization was multiply over some 1,260,000 km², making it the largest ancient empire.

Culture and Civlization

The Indus Valley is one of the world's earliest urban civilizations, along with its contemporaries, Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. At its peak, the Indus Civilization may have had a populace of well over five million. people of the very old Indus river valley developed new techniques in handicraft (carnelian products, seal carving) and metallurgy (copper, bronze, lead, and tin). The civilization is noted for its cities built of brick, wayside drainage system, and multistoried houses.
The Indus Valley civilization is also known as the Harappan Civilization, as the foremost of its cities to be unearthed was located at Harappa, excavated in the 1920s in what was at the time the Punjab province of British India (now in Pakistan). Excavation of Harappan sites has been ongoing since 1920, with important breakthroughs occurring as recently as 1999. There were former and later cultures, often called Early Harappan and Late Harappan, in the same area of the Harappan Civilization. The Harappan civilisation is sometimes called the Mature Harappan culture to distinguish it from these cultures. Up to 1,999, over 1,056 cities and settlement have been found, out of which 96 have been excavated, mainly in the general district of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra river and its tributaries. Among the settlements were the major urban centres of Harappa, Lothal, Mohenjo-daro (UNESCO World Heritage Site), Dholavira, Kalibanga, and Rakhigarhi.
The Indus Valley Civilization encompass most of Pakistan, extending from Balochistan to Sindh, and extend into modern day Indian states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab, with an upward reach to Rupar on the upper Sutlej. The geography of the Indus Valley put the civilizations that arose there in a highly similar situation to those in Egypt and Peru, with rich farming lands being surrounded by highlands, desert, and ocean. Recently, Indus sites have been bare in Pakistan's northwestern Frontier county as well. Other IVC colonies can be found in Afghanistan while smaller isolated colonies can be found as far away as Turkmenistan and in Gujarat. Coastal settlements extensive from Sutkagan Dor in Western Baluchistan to Lothal in Gujarat. An Indus Valley site has been found on the Oxus River at Shortughai in northern Afghanistan, in the Gomal River valley in northwestern Pakistan, at Manda,Jammu on the Beas River near Jammu, India, and at Alamgirpur on the Hindon River, only 28 km from Delhi. Indus Valley sites have been found most often on rivers, but also on the ancient seacoast, for example, Balakot, and on islands, for case in point, Dholavira.

Culture and Civlization

There is evidence of dry river beds overlap with the Hakra channel in Pakistan and the recurrent Ghaggar River in India. Many Indus Valley (or Harappan) sites have been discovered along the Ghaggar-Hakra beds. in the midst of them are: Rupar, Rakhigarhi, Sothi, Kalibangan, and Ganwariwala. According to J. G. Shaffer and D. A. Lichtenstein, the Harappan Civilization "is a fusion of the Bagor, Hakra, and Koti Dij traditions or 'ethnic groups' in the Ghaggar-Hakra valley on the borders of India and Pakistan".
The Early Harappan Ravi Phase, named after the nearby Ravi River, lasted from circa 3300 BCE until 2800 BCE. It is related to the Hakra Phase, identified in the Ghaggar-Hakra River Valley to the west, and predates the Kot Diji Phase (2800-2600 BCE, Harappan 2), named after a site in northern Sindh, Pakistan, near Mohenjo Daro. The earliest examples of the Indus script date from approximately 3000 BCE.
The mature phase of earlier village cultures is represent by Rehman Dheri and Amri in Pakistan. Kot Diji (Harappan 2) represent the phase leading up to Mature Harappan, with the citadel representing centralised authority and an more and more urban quality of life. Another town of this stage was found at Kalibangan in India on the Hakra River.
Trade networks linked this culture with related area cultures and distant sources of raw materials, including lapis lazuli and other tackle for bead-making. Villagers had, by this time, tame numerous crops, as well as peas, sesame seeds, dates, and cotton, as well as various animals, including the water deceive. Early Harappan community bowed to large urban centres by 2600 BCE, from where the full-grown Harappan phase started.
sophisticated and scientifically advanced urban culture is manifest in the Indus Valley Civilization making them the first urban centres in the region. The quality of municipal town setting up suggests the knowledge of urban planning and imaginative municipal governments which placed a high preference on hygiene, or, alternatively, ease of understanding to the means of holy ritual.
The idea of the citadel remnants debated. In sharp contrast to this civilization's contemporaries, Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, no large immense structure were built. There is no conclusive evidence of palaces or temples—or of kings, armies, or priests. Some structure are thought to have been granaries. Found at one city is an mammoth well-built bath (the "Great Bath"), which may have been a community bath. Although the citadel were walled, it is far from clear that these structures were defensive. They may have been built to divert flood waters.

Culture and Civlization

A number of gold, terra-cotta and stone collectibles of girls in dance poses disclose the being there of some dance form. Also, these terra-cotta collectibles included cows, bears, monkey, and dogs. The animal depicted on a majority of seals at sites of the mature period has not been clearly identified. Part bull, part zebra, with a royal horn, it has been a source of conjecture. As yet, there is insufficient facts to substantiate claims that the image had religious or cultic inference, but the prevalence of the representation raises the question of whether or not the animals in images of the IVC are religious symbols.

General Alexander Cunningham, later manager general of the archeological survey of northern India, visited Harappa where the British engineers John and William Brunton were laying the East Indian Railway Company line connecting the cities of Karachi and Lahore. John wrote: "I was much exercised in my mind how we were to get ballast for the line of the railway". They were told of an antique ruined city near the lines, called Brahminabad. Visiting the city, he found it full of hard well-burnt bricks, and, "convinced that there was a grand mine for the ballast I wanted", the city of Brahminabad was reduced to ballast. A few months later, further north, John's brother William Brunton's "section of the line ran near another ruined city, bricks from which had already been used by villagers in the nearby village of Harappa at the same site. These bricks now provided ballast along 93 miles (150 km) of the railroad track administration from Karachi to Lahore".In 1872–75 Alexander Cunningham published the first Harappan seal (with an erroneous identification as Brahmi letters). It was half a century later, in 1912, that more Harappan seals were discovered by J. Fleet, prompt an excavation campaign under Sir John Hubert Marshall in 1921–22 and resulting in the unearthing of the civilization at Harappa by Sir John Marshall, Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni and Madho Sarup Vats, and at Mohenjo-daro by Rakhal Das Banerjee, E. J. H. MacKay, and Sir John Marshall. By 1931, much of Mohenjo-Daro had been excavated, but excavations continued, such as that led by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, director of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1944. Among other archaeologists who worked on IVC the partition of the subcontinent in 1947were Ahmad Hasan Dani, Brij Basi Lal, Nani Gopal Majumdar, and Sir Marc Aurel Stein.