History Essay

Aashika Kumar
History 120
Professor Jeffers
California State University, Dominguez Hills
November 25, 2014

The Harappa and Phoenician people have some differences and similarities in the way
they built their societies and settled in their lands. The Harappan society was developed in the
valley of the Indus River, where the population grew rapidly and by about 3000 B.C.E., their
villages were becoming thriving cities (pg. 72). The Phoenician society lived on a coastal plain
between the Mediterranean Sea and the Lebanon mountains, where their ancestors had migrated
to after 3000 B.C.E. (pg. 40). These two societies also had similar beliefs about how they should
run their government.
The Harrapan and Phoenician societies did not have a monarchy rule. Archeological
excavations have turned up no evidence of a royal or imperial authority. The Harrapan cities
were economic and political centers for their own regions. They did not dominate the Indus
valley politically or militarily (pg. 73). Similarly in the Phoenician society, they did not rule
under a unified monarchy. Instead they organized independent city-states ruled by local kings
(pg. 40). They showed more interest in pursuing trade than in state building or military
expansion. Neither of these societies made the military or being under one ruler the main
priority. They didnt seem as determined to conquer other societies for power. They were more
interested in trading with nearby countries, rather than conquer them.
During this time period, trade was an important influence on these two societies. Harappa
engaged in trade, foreign and domestic. They gained gold, silver, copper, and lead from Persia
and the Hindu-Kush Mountains. During the period about 2300 and 1750 B.C.E., they also traded
with Mesopotamia, exchanging Indian copper, ivory, beads, and semiprecious stones for wool,
leather, and olive oil (pg. 73). The Phoenicians influenced societies throughout the
Mediterranean basin because of their maritime trade and communication networks. After about
2500 B.C.E., the Phoenicians turned to industry and trade (pg. 40). They also traded with

Mesopotamia and they provided much of the cedar timber, furnishings, and decorative items.
Trade was the major component of the Phoenician society received their goods, whereas the
Harrapan society focused mainly on agriculture.
In the Harappan society, they were more agricultural based and the Phoenician society
was trade based. The Indus river was available for the irrigation of crops. The inhabitants of the
valley supplemented their harvests of wheat and barley with meat from herds of cattle, sheep,
and goats (pg. 73). Their diets consisted mostly of the meat that they got from their animals. In
contrast, the Phoenician lands did not permit a large agricultural society, which led them to turn
to trading. They had a reputation for red and purple textiles colored with dyes from molluscs that
were common in waters near Phoenicia. They were also excellent sailors and they built the best
ships of their times. Between 1200 and 800 B.C.E., they dominated Mediterranean trade (pg. 40).
These two societies were different not only in the focus of their society, but also in their written
language.
The Harrapan society used symbols to represent sounds and words and the Phoenician
society evolved their writing into an early alphabetic script consisting of 22 symbols representing
letters. Archaeologists have a lack of deciphered written records of the Harrapans. The details of
their lives are hidden behind the veil of pictographic script (pg. 72). In comparison, the
Phoenicians relied on cuneiform writing to preserve information. Some of their writings have
survived over the years. By 1500 B.C.E., Phoenician scribes created an early alphabetic script
with 22 symbols representing consonants. Learning twenty-two letters and building words was
much easier than memorizing hundreds of symbols (pg. 41). Their alphabet spread as they
continued to trade and travel through the Mediterranean basin. The Phoenicians found an easier

way than the Harrapan societys way of writing and using countless symbols to write about their
society and culture.
The Harrapan and Phoenician society were very much alike as well as different too. They
lived in settlements that were not under the rule of one monarch, nor did they put much focus on
military. The Harrapans found it more important to focus on agriculture more than trade, whereas
the Phoenicians focused on trade solely. They both were trading partners in Mesopotamia as
well. Their written language started off similar memorizing hundreds of symbols for words, but
the Phoenicians found an easier way to write with only twenty-two. This shows us that although
different, two societies can also have similarities too.