The Indus Civilisation spread over a large area with a relatively uniform material culture in the 3rd millenium BCE. What force held this civilisation together if not a central authority or bureaucratic system?
Several researchers believe that the cities of the Indus Civilisation were not held together by a strong central power, but rather by a common ideology. Cities, as economic and political centres of the surrounding areas, operated relatively independently, in alliance with each other.
(© The Trustees of the British Museum)
It seems that the society of the Indus civilization had no external enemies and could strive for mutually beneficial relations with the inhabitants of the surrounding areas. No signs of external attack or siege were identified on the massive walls of the cities.
War does not appear in the pictorial representations of the Indus civilization either. They had weapons, of course, but they might have been used rather for hunting than for military purposes.
Source of images:
1: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1939-0619-205
