Indus valley River Civilization

3. Political and economic environment

Politically, the male statue of The Priest King showed that they had social classes and a government with a head ruler. In addition, the ruler was honored. According to archeologists, there are no traces of weapons or wars which led them to think that the Indus were peaceful people. 

In terms of architecture, many covered drains show the public work projects and advanced agriculture within the Indus Valley Civilization.They also used to have well built cities with an advanced water system with baths and even sanitation system with tubes underground. The Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, a technical and political process concerned with the use of land and design of the urban environment. They are also noted for their baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, and clusters of large, nonresidential buildings. the world's first known urban sanitation systems. The ancient Indus systems of sewage and drainage developed and used in cities throughout the Indus region were far more advanced than any found in Europe nor in contemporary urban sites in the Middle East and even more efficient than those in many areas of Pakistan and India today.

     Individual homes drew water from wells, while wastewater was directed to covered drains on the main streets. Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes, and even the smallest homes on the city outskirts were believed to have been connected to the system, further supporting the conclusion that cleanliness was a matter of great importance. It is important to pinpoint highly sophisticated innovations of this civilization including standardized weights and measures, seal carving, and metallurgy with copper, bronze, lead, and tin.

Harrapans are known for seal carving— the cutting of patterns into the bottom face of a seal, a small, carved object used for stamping. They used these distinctive seals for the identification of property and to stamp clay on trade goods. Seals—decorated with animal figures, such as elephants, tigers, and water buffalos—have been one of the most commonly discovered artifacts in Indus Valley cities

       Trade focused on importing raw materials to be used in Harappan city workshops, including minerals from Iran and Afghanistan, lead and copper from other parts of India, jade from China, and cedar wood floated down rivers from the Himalayas and Kashmir. Other trade goods included terracotta pots, gold, silver, metals, beads, flints for making tools, seashells, pearls, and colored gemstones, such as lapis lazuli and turquoise. One of the ways historians know about the maritime trade network operating between the Harappan and Mesopotamian civilizations is the discovery of Harappan seals and jewelry at archaeological sites in regions of Mesopotamia, which includes most of modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, and parts of Syria. Long-distance sea trade over bodies of water—such as the Arabian Sea, Red Sea and the Persian Gulf—may have become feasible with the development of plank watercraft that were each equipped with a single central mast supporting a sail of woven rushes or cloth.