Periodisation of the Indus Valley Civilisation

Several periodisations are employed for the periodisation of the Indus Valley Civilisation. While the Indus Valley Civilisation was divided into Early, Mature, and Late Harappan by archaeologists like Mortimer Wheeler, newer periodisations include the Neolithic early farming settlements, and use a stage–phase model, often combining terminology from various systems.

Quotes

• The two limits of the Indus civilization are now easy to assess, based on the first and last occurrences of Harappan objects in independently dated contexts in Mesopotamia.
  • Dilip K. Chakrabarti - India An Archaeological History Palaeolithic Beginnings to Early Historic Foundations (2010, Oxford University Press)

• We can say that the Indus civilization came into existence by c. 2600 BC and was alive at 1400 BC and later. This is the baseline; the exact points of the beginning and the end are difficult to determine and perhaps not even necessary. But one may safely accept the broad chronology of the Indus civilization in the subcontinent from c. 2700 BC to c. 1300 BC.
  • Dilip K. Chakrabarti - India An Archaeological History Palaeolithic Beginnings to Early Historic Foundations (2010, Oxford University Press)

• I shall begin by taking up the problem of the date of the beginning of this civilization. Many Indian books still refer to the date propounded first in 1946 by Mortimer Wheeler, i.e. 2500 BC. That was based on Wheeler’s own subjective estimate of the date of the earliest contact between the Indus civilization and Mesopotamia. Assuming that this contact was not significantly earlier than the reign of the Mesopotamian king Sargon and accepting 2325 BC as Sargon’s date, he arrived at the round figure of 2500 BC, allowing 175-odd years for this civilization to form a relationship with Mesopotamia. The earliest date of the Mesoptamian civilization, typified by the Early Dynastic Period is 2700/2800 BC. Thus, according to Wheeler’s scheme, the Indus civilization was later than the Mesopotamian civilization, which was natural in the light of his belief that the idea of civilization came to the Indus from the former.
  • Chakrabarti, D. K. (2009). Who Owns the Indian Past?: The Case of the Indus Civilization.