The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) has long been regarded as a puzzle in ancient history. Many scholars and textbooks have portrayed it as a remarkably peaceful realm, especially when compared to contemporaries in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Unlike those civilizations – which left behind vivid records of wars, conquests, and armies – the Indus cities yield little overt evidence of warfare. This observation has led to the oft-repeated claim that the Harappans (as IVC people are called) were peace-loving, lacking armies or conflict. As one historian noted, “there is no trace of warfare or invasion” in the Indus cities; in fact, the Harappans do not seem to have kept any army or weapons of war, and “as far as the evidence goes, it seems to have been a relatively peaceful civilization”. But how valid is this characterization? In this article, we explore archaeological and scholarly evidence for and against the idea of a “peaceful” Indus Valley Civilization, examining what the absence of war mi...
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