How the cities of the Indus Valley were organised

Streets, drains, weights and craft production reveal sophisticated urban coordination.

Mira Nair

From roughly 2600 to 1900 BCE, cities including Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and Dholavira formed part of a vast urban civilisation across the Indus region. Planned streets, wells, drainage and standardised weights point to sustained coordination.

Archaeology shows specialised craft production and long-distance exchange, including links with regions around the Persian Gulf. Dholavira’s reservoirs demonstrate careful responses to a challenging environment.

These cities complicate assumptions that monumental palaces or royal tombs are necessary signs of complex government. Authority may have been organised through institutions that left different archaeological traces.

The Indus script remains undeciphered, so political structures and spoken languages are uncertain. Claims about rulers, religion or sudden collapse must be separated from what material evidence can securely demonstrate.

Sources and further reading

UNESCO: Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro
Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization

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