Dholavira Women workers on steps in trench.This society had incredibly sophisticated water systems..Women move dirt out of a giant reservoir just discovered this season in Dholavira. Mesopotamian cities drew water from rivers or irrigation canals but had no sophisticated drain system. 4,800 years ago, at the same time as the early civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt, great cities arose along the flood plains of the Indus and Saraswati (Ghaggar-Hakra) rivers. Developments at Harappa have pushed the dates back 200 years for this civilization, proving once and for all, that this civilization was not just an offshoot of Mesopotamia..They were a highly organized and very successful civilization. They built some of the world's first planned cities, created one of the world's first written languages and thrived in an area twice as large as Egypt or Mesopotamia for 900 years (1500 settlements spread over 280,000 square miles on the subcontinent)..There are three major communities--Harappa, Mohenjo Daro, and Dholavira. The town of Harappa flourished during this period because of it's location at the convergence of several trade routes that spanned a 1040 KM swath from the northern mountains to the coast.
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