Page 36 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

18 Bronze and Stone

not know. We can be sure that he possessed just as detailed,
superficial, and romanticized a knowledge of the past of his own
people as had the men of Mesopotamia and of Egypt. As he stood
there, he was heir to at least five hundred years of city life and
organized agriculture. So much we can prove; but it is extremely
likely that the beginnings of civilization in the valley lands are
many hundreds of years earlier still, that they lie so far back
that they are beyond even the myths which begin the popular
picture of his people’s past. We can be sure that there are stories
of kings and of wars, leading up by insensible degrees to the
more immediate and detailed recollection of the previous genera­
tion or so, and tying up with the present moment, the govern­
mental structure, the decrees and opportunities and dissatisfac­
tions of the first day of the Second Millennium b.c. in the valley
of the Indus.

THE BRAHMIN BULL, HERE REPRODUCED FROM A HARAPPA SEAL, IS
REPRESENTED ON MANY OF THE SEALS OF THE INDUS VALLEY CIVILI­
ZATION, AND MAY WELL HAVE BEEN SACRED THEN AS NOW.