Indus Valley

Cradle of Civilization in the Sub-Continent

Though one of the five "cradles" of civilization, this region of archaeological wonder is not nearly as accessible to Western culture as that of the Fertile Crescent (Egypt and Mesopotamia). Its history is not as early or as complex as that of the Middle East, either. But the Indus River Valley civilization remains as a substantial beginning for humanity in this region of the world. Most of this civilization occupied what is modern-day Pakistan, but also part of Western India.

Settlements in this valley start about 7000 BC, with mature cities showing up about 2600 to 1900 BC. Major cities include Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro and Rakhigarhi.

The ruins of Mohenjo-Daro with the "Great Bath" in the foreground. Photograph: Photo: Grjatoi, courtesy Wikipedia.org.

The Indus Valley civilization included the first known urban sanitation systems in the world. Their society included dockyards, granaries, warehouses, brick platforms and protective walls. The culture seemed largely egalitarian. All houses had similar access to water and drainage. No homes were significantly larger than others and there do not appear to have been palaces, so wealth was not concentrated in an elite few.

A map of the Indus Valley civilization's extent. Courtesy Wikipedia.org.

The Indus Civilization included a detailed system of weights and measures, perhaps the first such culture to develop a uniform system. They even seemed to have a rudimentary form of dentistry. Trade seemed to be an important aspect of the Indus civilization with evidence of trade with Western India, Afghanistan, Iran, Crete and possibly Egypt.

 

Possible Links to Atlantis

So-called "priest-king" statue, 17.5 cm high, carved of soapstone. Discovered 1927 and currently on display at National Museum, Karachi, Pakistan. Photo: Mamoon Mengal, world66.com.

If Plato's lost island empire, Atlantis, ever existed, its refugees had plenty of time to influence cultures across all of Eurasia.

The ubiguitous signs of goddess worship and signs of bull-leaping suggest a tie with the culture of Minoan Crete, about which we still know very little.

The language of this culture or batch of cultures is unknown, but one of the more popular theories points to the Dravidian language family which is concentrated largely in Southern India today, but exists in pockets all across India and Pakistan, suggesting a much broader presence in prehistoric times. Could the children of Atlantis have migrated into the area, influenced and merged with its inhabitants and disseminated the legends of a prior civilization, thus inspiring the creation of a new one?

Linguistic Clues?

Replica of Mohenjo-Daro dancing girl statue. Photo: Joe Ravi, courtesy Wikipedia.org.

If the culture of the Indus Valley civilization was Dravidian, some linguistic clues prove interesting, here. Perhaps the two most sentimentally favorite words in any language are "mother" and "father." Dravidian for mother=amma, father=appa(n) and these remain strikingly similar to the Sumerian (mother=ama, father=ada). But also compare this to Hungarian—mother=anya, father=apa or atya.

While such a linguistic clue is pretty thin as evidence goes, it remains nonetheless a possible clue. Though it is unworthy of being called proof of anything, it can act as a direction for further investigation.

Each of these seems to create a piece of a larger puzzle which includes Etruscan and Basque. In Etruscan, mother=ati, father=apa. In Basque, mother=ama, father=aita. Notice the apparent gender swap between the two languages—Basque for "mother" seems similar to Etruscan (Rasenna) for "father," while Basque for "father" remains similar to Etruscan for "mother."

One curious fact makes the link between Basque and Etruscan even more enticing comes to us from the Etruscan pantheon. One of the Etruscan gods has a name which matches exactly by gender and spelling the Basque for "father"—Aita (god of "endings" or "death"). And similarly, one of the Etruscan goddesses has a name which nearly matches the Basque for "mother"—Ana (one of two gods of "beginnings"; comparable to Roman god Janus).

Photograph of the Mohenjo-Daro ruins site, 2010. Photo: Comrogues, flickr.com.

One possible implication is that the children of Atlantis started out as matriarchal and later switched to patriarchal, but in some instances kept the term with the role rather than the gender. And notice that Dravidian for "mother" is phonetically the same as Basque for "mother," while Dravidian for "father" is phonetically the same as Etruscan for "father."

One other piece in the linguistic jigsaw puzzle comes from the Eastern Black Sea nation of Georgia (ancient Colchis of Jason and the Argonauts fame). Modern Georgian for mother is "deda," while father is "mama." This appears to be gender-swapped with Sumerian as well as the bulk of Indo-European languages. The chart below summarizes these relationships.

Source	Mother	Father	Notes
Dravidian	amma	appa(n)
Sumerian	ama	ada
Hungarian	anya	apa, atya
Etruscan	ati	apa	gender swap from Basque
Etruscan gods	Ana	Aita	near match with Basque
Basque	ama	aita
Georgian	deda	mama	gender swap from English