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Mesopotamia and the Indus civilization were both urban civilizations with large, densely populated and planned cities, 6000–1990 BCE. A new thesis in archaeology points out that the ancient Indus society showed complex patterns of urbanity that were rare in other ancient societies.
The aim of the thesis was to analyze the main differences in the settlements of the Indus civilization's settlements and their urban infrastructure, some 4000–5000 years ago. The study included an investigation of the urbanization process in relation to the size of the population, the settlement area, and the geographical location of the urban centers.
"The aim was to analyze the urban infrastructure of the Indus civilization by comparing archaeological data from its largest urban formations. The effects of urbanization on the regional environment have also been treated in the thesis," says Sidra Gulzar, doctoral student in archaeology at the University of Gothenburg.
The study also compares the urban process and development from the Indus region with the Mesopotamian region on a number of levels. This was done using available archaeological material, focusing on a limited number of artifacts from Mohenjo Daro, Harappa and Ganweriwala, which were analyzed and compared using the SEM-EDX method (Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis).
"The results from the SEM-EDX analysis showed that the artifacts were produced locally."
