A Study Of The History Of Archaeological Research On The Indus Civilization

Indus Civilization,also known as the Indus Valley Civilization,in its mature form from2600 BC to 1900 BC.It mainly distributed in the northeast of Afghanistan,Pakistan and the northwest of India.It is one of the four ancient civilizations of the Old World and the first urban civilization of South Asia.Before the 20 th century,people knew nothing about the Indus civilization.In the historical records of South Asia,including the earliest Vedic scriptures,there was no mention of this glorious ancient civilization.John Marshall and other scholars confirmed the existence of the Indus civilization in 1920 s,when modern people began to knew this ancient civilization.After a century of United archaeological investigation and excavation with western countries,such as the UK,the USA,France,Germany,Italy and Japan,India and Pakistan have made important achievements in the fields of the Indus civilization.Indus civilization is adjacent to the Early Chinese Civilization.Pakistan is the most important country in China's One Belt One Road Initiative.India is an important neighborhood of China.For a long time,Chinese scholars did little work on the study of Indus civilization.So far,Chinese scholars has not published any academic monograph which systematically studies of the Indus Civilization.It is necessary to study the academic history of overseas archaeology.The study of the academic history of archaeology of the Indus civilization is an important work in South Asian archaeology.Therefore,through collecting published research material,this research mainly focused on the academic history of archaeology of the Indus civilization.This dissertation has included the following four sections:Firstly,collected all the research material of Indus Civilization and groomed the process of archaeological investigations and excavations of Indus civilization from the 19 th century to the present.Summed up the profile,characteristics and contribution of archaeological works onu Indus civilization in different periods.Secondly,Summed up the main academic views of the Indus civilization from the 19 th century to the present.Understood the origin of related academic topics and their development process.Paid more attention to the latest research to lay the foundation to further work.The archaeological research of the Indus civilization is deeply influenced by Western archaeology and has not formed a local independent research system.At the same time,there is a lack of documentary evidence,study of the Indus civilization is completely dependent on archaeology.Therefore,mastering the theories and methods of archaeology is the basic requirement for studying the Indus civilization.Thirdly,In-depth research has been conducted on the main academic issues of the Indus civilization.The main evidence was that the Indus civilization was centered on the Indus and the Saraswati river,and the geographical environment was relatively open during the formation process.The climate in most areas was dry and irrigated agriculture was dominant.Based on irrigated agriculture,the Indus Valley had moved from a blood-related society to a geo-society,establishing regional city-states.Export-oriented economy was an important feature of the Indus civilization.Through the Persian Gulf and the north and south of Iranian Plateau,Indus Civilization founded a close commercial relationship with the two river basins of West Asia and the Amu Darya River basin in Central Asia.Because of terrain fragmentation,lacking of external threats,open economy,a peaceful internal and external environment,and non-strict hierarchy,it did not form a unified monarchy state,but established early city-states.Balanced urban development lack of centripetal force.The social structure of Indus Civilization was not stable.About 1900 BC,the Indus civilization encountered social "crisis",such as climate and environmental changes,frequent natural disasters,economic decline in trade,and epidemics of infectious diseases.Under the combined effect of multiple "crises",the Indus Civilization declined.Fourthly,the Indus civilization is adjacent to Chinese early civilization.But there is little discussion on the relationship between these two early civilizations.Thus,this paper makes a further extended discussion when talk about the main academic issues of the Indus civilization.The main conclusions are: foxtail millet,proso millet and rice native to China were introduced into the Indus Valley before 2000 BC.After the disappearance of the Indus civilization,the Indus River Basin and the western region of China might have direct exchanges through the road passed through Karakoram,such as the Wakhan Corridor,Swat Valley and Indus Valley.