The research suggests the Indus Valley Civilisation could be far older than previously believed, not just by a few centuries, but by thousands of years. Experts studying pottery and animal remains at Bhirrana in northern India say the roots of this ancient society may stretch back around 8,000 years. If confirmed, that would place its earliest beginnings well before the era of Egypt’s first pharaohs, potentially rewriting long-accepted narratives about where organised urban life first emerged in human history.
For decades, school textbooks have placed the great civilisations of the ancient world in an order from first Mesopotamia, then Egypt with its pyramids and pharaohs, and alongside them, the Indus Valley Civilisation. This timeline study may now be shifting, as the research suggests, prompting historians to reconsider how interconnected and advanced early societies may truly have been.
