Indus civilization
印度次大陸已知的最早的城市文化，亦是世界上範圍最廣泛的三個古文明之一。西至今日阿拉伯海的伊朗-巴基斯坦邊界附近，東至德里附近，向南延伸800公里，向東北延伸1,600公里。其中有兩座大城市，哈拉帕和摩亨約-達羅（在今巴基斯坦境內），由其規模可推測是兩個大邦的政治中心或是一個大帝國輪流以兩地為京城，但也可能是哈拉帕繼摩亨約-達羅之後成為京城所在地。印度河文明是個有文字、語言的文明；其語言被歸入達羅毗荼語族。種植小麥和大麥，已馴養許多動物（包括貓、狗和牛），也已栽培棉花。最着名的工藝品是圖章，通常雕刻了一些真實或想像的動物。印度河文明何時結束及為何結束仍未能確知；西元前第二千紀摩亨約-達羅受到攻擊及洗劫而滅亡，但在南部，仍然可見晚期印度河文明與銅器時代文化間的實際文化銜接，此種文化銜接也是西元前1700～西元前1000年印度中、西部文化的特徵。
前2500年～西元前1700?年
Indus civilization
Earliest known urban culture of the Indian subcontinent and the most extensive of the world's three earliest civilizations, stretching from near the present-day Iran-Pakistan border on the Arabian Sea in the west to near Delhi in the east, and 500 mi (800 km) to the south and 1,000 mi (1,600 km) to the northeast. It is known to have included two large cities, Harappa and Mohenjo Daro (in what is now Pakistan), whose large size suggests centralization in two large states or one state with two capitals. Alternatively, Harappa may have succeeded Mohenjo Daro. It was a literate civilization; the language has been tentatively identified as Dravidian. Wheat and barley were grown, many animals (including cats, dogs, and cattle) were domesticated, and cotton was cultivated. The best-known artifacts are seals depicting real and imaginary animals. How and when the civilization came to an end is unclear; Mohenjo-daro was attacked and destroyed in the mid-2nd millennium BC, but in the south there was continuity between the Indus civilization and the Copper Age civilizations of central and western India.
