Scientific developments in the Indus Valley Civilization: Weights and Measurements

Weights and Measurement:

1. The Indus civilization’s inhabitants had developed a high degree of precision in measuring length, mass, and time. They were among the first to establish an equitable weights and measures system.
2. A study of the available materials suggests that the Indus areas exhibit considerable variance. Their smallest division, as shown on an ivory scale discovered in Lothal, Gujarat, was around 1.704 mm, the tiniest partition documented on the Bronze Age scale.
3. Harappan engineers divided measurements into decimal fractions for all practical reasons, including mass measurement using their hexahedron weights.
4. Additionally, they used a weight stone (Batkhara) to weigh 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 units, as well as smaller things measuring 0.871 units, each unit weighing 28 grams, almost equivalent to the English Imperial Ounce or Greek Unia. However, like with other civilizations, the actual weights varied throughout the area.
5. Later in Kautilya’s astrology (4th century BCE), the weight and measurement employed are comparable to those in Lothal.
6. The Indus Valley civilization’s inhabitants were technically advanced and had an advanced understanding of metallurgy; they also used standardized burned bricks, precise weights, and cotton.
7. Numerous subdivisions also used a calibrated standardized system of weights and measures. They employed gold, silver, copper, lapis lazuli, turquoise, amethyst, alabaster, and jade, among other materials, according to evidence discovered during the excavations
8. Harappans invented new metallurgical processes and also manufactured copper, bronze, lead, and tin. At Banawali, a stone with gold streaks was discovered, which may have been used to determine the purity of gold, a process that is still utilized in some regions of India today.

Ruler:

1. The earliest surviving measuring rod is a copper-alloy strip discovered at Nippur by German Assyriologist Eckhard Unger. And Unger said that it was utilized as a standard of measurement.
2. Before 1500 BCE, the Indus Valley Civilisation used an ivory ruler in what is now Pakistan and certain portions of Western India. One such ruler calibrated to around 1/16 of an inch—less than 2 millimeters—was discovered during excavations at Lothal (2400 BCE).
3. According to Ian Whitelaw (2007), ‘The Mohenjo-Daro ruler is split into units equivalent to 1.32 inches (33.5 mm) and these are etched out in decimal subdivisions with astonishing precision to within 0.005 of an inch. The proportions of ancient bricks discovered around the area match these units.’

Buttons, decorative:

1. Indus Valley Civilization employed buttons made of Sagar ka kauri for aesthetic reasons circa 2000 BCE. Some buttons were carved with geometric forms and holes to allow for thread attachment to clothes.
2. According to Ian McNeill (1990), “buttons were initially employed more as a decorative than a fastener, with the oldest being discovered in Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus Valley.” It is made of a bent shell and is believed to be around 5000 years old.”

Transportation technology:

1. Significant advancements in transportation technology assisted the Indus Valley Civilization. These advancements might include bullock carts like the boats prevalent across South Asia today.
2. The majority of these boats were presumably tiny, flat-bottomed vessels propelled by sails, as seen today on the Indus River; nonetheless, there is secondary evidence of seagoing vessels. One transportation technology is boat also
3. Archeologists have unearthed a massive, dry canal used as a mooring facility in western India’s coastal port of Lothal (Gujarat state). A vast canal system that was also utilized for irrigation is also a transportation technology.

Civilisation of the Indus Valley

The Indus Valley Civilisation was one of three “Ancient East” societies that are widely regarded as the cradles of civilisation in the old world of man; the other two “Ancient East” societies are Mesopotamia and Pharonic Egypt. The Indus Valley Civilisation is often divided into three phases: the Early Harappan Phase (3300-2600 BCE), the Mature Harappan Phase (2600-1900 BCE), and the Late Harappan Phase (1900-1300 BCE).

At its peak, the Indus Valley Civilisation may have had a population of over five million people. It is a Bronze Age society, and inhabitants of the ancient Indus River Valley developed new metallurgy techniques—the science of working with copper, bronze, lead, and tin. They also did intricate handicrafts, particularly with products made of the semi-precious gemstone Carnelian, as well as seal carving, which is the cutting of patterns into the bottom face of a stamping seal. The Indus cities are known for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage, and water supply systems, and clusters of large, non-residential buildings.

The Indus Valley Civilisation is also known as the Harappan Civilisation, after Harappa, the first of its sites to be excavated in the 1920s in what was British India’s Punjab province and is now Pakistan. The discovery of Harappa and the site of its neighbouring Indus city Mohenjo-Daro was the culmination of work that began in 1861 with the establishment of the Archaeological Survey of India in the British Raj, the common name for British imperial rule over the Indian subcontinent from 1858 to 1947.

Conclusion: 

Between 3300 and 1300 BCE, and again between 2600 and 1900 BCE, the Indus Valley Civilisation existed. This civilization stretched from what is now northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India along the Indus River. The Indus Civilisation, along with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, was the most widespread of the ancient world’s three early civilizations. The two great cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation, which emerged around 2600 BCE along the Indus River Valley in Pakistan’s Sindh and Punjab provinces, were thought to be Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, their discovery and excavation yielded valuable archeological information about ancient cultures.