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Cotton, rice and sesame: 2500-1700 BC
The local produce of the Indus civilization includes three crops of great significance in subsequent history, each of which is possibly first cultivated here.
Yarns of spun cotton have been found at Mohenjo-daro. There is evidence of the growing of rice in the region of Lothal. And sesame, the earliest plant to be used as a source of edible oil, also seems to make its first appearance here as an agricultural crop. Engravings of elephants on the Indus valley seals, sometimes with ropes around the body, suggests that this civilization is also the first to tame the world's most powerful beast of burden.
Peak and decline: 2000 - 1700 BC
The reach of the Indus civilization is extensive. After the discovery of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, further sites have been revealed - as far down the coast as Lothal, making the spread of the Indus civilization greater than that of Egypt and Mesopotamia together.
At Lothal there is even a specially designed dockyard, of kiln-baked bricks, from which vessels trade along the coast and possibly up the Persian Gulf as far as Mesopotamia. |
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