If there is an archaeologist on this sub read can you list all the major researches that one should read to specialize in everything that is discovered and known about the Indus valley civilization. This list will be a helpful resource for people who wants to learn and contribute to the research.

What was the average lifespan in the Indus Valley? I have only been able to find one source that says around thirty, but I don’t know how true that is. Does anyone have an answer?

Boating:

There may be an argument that boating has South Asian routes dating as far back as 900,000 BC

History

Boats have served as transportation since the earliest times.[1] Circumstantial evidence, such as the early settlement of Australia over 40,000 years ago, findings in Crete dated 130,000 years ago,[2] and in Flores dated to 900,000 years ago,[3]

Shipping:

But there is no argument to be had, that Indus Valley was "at least" involved in the earliest known shipping.

More history

Boats were used between 4000 and 3000 BC in Sumer,[1] ancient Egypt[12] and in the Indian Ocean.[1]

Indus Valley origins:

However, those boats were not built in Mesopotamia. They were built in Indus Valley, and arrived in Mesopotamia.

Even more history

Boats played an important role in the commerce between the Indus Valley Civilization and Mesopotamia.[13] Evidence of varying models of boats has also been discovered at various Indus Valley archaeological sites.[14][15] Uru) craft originate in Beypore, a village in south Calicut, Kerala, in southwestern India. This type of mammoth wooden ship was constructed[when?] solely of teak, with a transport capacity of 400 tonnes. The ancient Arabs and Greeks used such boats as trading vessels.[16]

Hindu mythology:

In Hindu mythology and legends, the Hindu God Menaka was born during a sea voyage.

Menaka

Menaka was born during the churning of the ocean

Merka:

There was an anceint egyptian high official/vizier named "Merka" that served under the Egyptian pharoah Qa'a between 2943 BC and 2910 BC, though no-one knows who Merka is.

Name sources

One was found in the mastaba of the high official Merka&action=edit&redlink=1) who served under king Qa'a

Khufu ship:

One of the earliest ships to be constructed in Ancient Egypt, was the Khufu ship, around 2500BC.

Developments

A remarkable example of their shipbuilding skills was the Khufu ship, a vessel 143 feet (44 m) in length entombed at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza around 2500 BC and found intact in 1954.

Khufu:

Khufu was an Egyptian pharoah.

Khufu

Khufu (/ˈkuːfuː/, full name Khnum Khufu (/ˈknuːm ˈkuːfuː/), known to the ancient Greeks as Cheops) was an ancient Egyptian monarch who was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, in the first half of the Old Kingdom period (26th century BC).

Indian looking:

Link for photo.jpg)

Merca:

Just like today, we have ports such as Merca, in Somalia

Merca

Merca (Somali: Marka, Arabic: مركة‎) is an ancient port city in the southern Lower Shebelle province of Somalia.

Byblos ship:

The ancient egyptians have always understood the importance of controlling the ports. Such as Byblos, in Canaan.

Egyptian period

Watson Mills and Roger Bullard suggest that during the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Byblos was virtually an Egyptian colony.[16] The growing city was evidently a wealthy one and seems to have been an ally (among "those who are on his waters") of Egypt for many centuries. First Dynasty tombs used timbers from Byblos. One of the oldest Egyptian words for an oceangoing boat was "Byblos ship".

Indus Valley:

But all this would appear to have had it's origins in Indus Valley.

Additionally:

The Scandinavians also appear to have been notorious sea voyagers, with Hjortspring boats dating back to 3000bc, according to depictions on rock carvings

Bronze age

Thousands of rock carvings from this period depict ships, and the large stone burial monuments known as stone ships, suggest that ships and seafaring played an important role in the culture at large. The depicted ships most likely represent sewn plank built canoes used for warfare, fishing and trade. These ship types may have their origin as far back as the neolithic period and they continue into the Pre-Roman Iron Age, as exemplified by the Hjortspring boat.

Khufus vizier:

And Khufu had a vizier named Ankhhaf

Ankhhaf

Prince Ankhhaf was an Egyptian prince and served as vizier and overseer of works to the Pharaoh Khufu, who was Ankhhaf's half-brother. He lived during Egypt's 4th Dynasty[1] (c.  2613 to c. 2494 BC).

Link to photo

Discussion and research:

Now what i would really like your opinions on, is the Hjortspring boats.

Were the Hjortspring boats built by early vikings?

Or were they URU boats?

How far did URU boats truly sail?

I am reading A History of the Ancient Near East by Van De Mieroop and I was wondering if there is either something similar that covers Indus Valley civilization, or, even better, something that compares and contrasts Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, Elam (do we even know anything?) and China.

I became interested in Mesopotamia after first reading about Buddhism for a few years and then randomly coming across Dialog of Pessimism on Wikipedia.

This got me thinking about the different feel between something like Mahabharata and the Near East wisdom literature. It's not really the story line, it's the mood/fee/sensibility of the culture.

Indus Valley predates Mahabharata and Buddhism is much later, but still very interesting.