Chronology of Indus Valley Civilization

May 4th, 2011

The chronology of the rise and fall of the Harappan civ ilization has been an
issue of debate and controv ersy . Substantiv e work was done by Marshall who
dated this civ ilization between the 3250-27 00 BC. The modern research
based upon the C-1 4 dating or radiocarbon dating has placed it between the
2900 BC to 2000 BC.
Howev er, recent ex cav ations by the Harappa Archaeological Research
Projecthav e been able to build on these earlier studies to define at least fiv e
major periods of dev elopment.
This latest project was started by the Univ ersity of California and it was
named Univ ersity of California-Berkeley Project which started in 1 986
under the leadership of Dr. George F. Dales at Harappa in Pakistan. Dr.
Dales died in 1 992 and the Gov ernment of Pakistan named it as
Harappa
Archaeological
Research
Project.
Website:http://www.harappa.com
These fiv e periods represent a continuous process of cultural dev elopment
where new aspects of culture are balanced with long term continuities and
linkages in many crafts and artifact sty les.
Period 1 : Pre-harappan or Rav i aspect : 3300 BC - c. 2800 BC
Period 2 : Kot Diji or Early Harappa: c. 2800 BC - c. 2600 BC
Period 3A: Harappa Phase A c. 2600 BC - c. 2450 BC
Period 3B : Harappa Phase B c. 2450 BC - c. 2200 BC
Period 3C : Harappa Phase C 2200 BC - c. 1 900 BC
Period 4 : Harappa/Late Harappa Transitional c. 1 900 BC - c. 1 800 BC
(?)
Period 5 : Late Harappa Phase c. 1 800 BC (?) - < 1 300 BC
Please don't cram these dates. The only thing should be kept in mind is that the
civ ilization dates back to around 3300 BC to 1 300 BC.
The researches hav e made it clear that the Harappan Civ ilization was
definitely in contact with the Mesopotamian civ ilization in 2600 BC.
The most accepted timeline for dev elopment from the Neolithic period to early

historic period through Harappa Civ ilization is as follows: (all dates are
approx imates)
Early Food Producing Era: 6500 - 5000 B.C.
Regionalization Era: 5000 - 2600 B.C.
Indus Civ ilization - Harappan Culture Integration Era : 2600 - 1 900
B.C.
Late Harappan Period: 1 900 - 1 300 or 1 000 B.C.
Post-Indus Tradition, Painted Grey Ware +1 200 - 800 B.C.
Northern Black Polished Ware: + 7 00 - 300 B.C.
Early Historic Period : 600 B.C.