Based on city size alone, it has been suggested that Harappan culture was ____________________.

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Question restatement: Based on city size alone, it has been suggested that Harappan culture was ____________________.

Option 1: 'Divided into a northern state controlled by Harappa and a southern state controlled by Mohenjo-Daro.' This proposal implies a simple two-core regional scheme with a clear north–south division. While Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro are major urban centers, the evidence from settlement patterns does not strongly support a formal, dual-state structure centered strictly on these two cities. The Harappan network appears more complex than a binary split.

Option 2: 'Divided into an western state controlled by Mohenjo-Daro and an eastern state controlled by Rakhigarhi.' This option assigns a zonal political arrangement with specific control of western and eastern regions. However, Rakhigarhi is an important site but is not typically described as the eastern capital in scholarly consensus, and the idea of a fixed western–eastern division controlled by these two centers lacks robust corroborating evidence.

Option 3: 'Comprised of dozens of city-states, similar to Mesopotamia.' This portrays the Harappan world as a loose federation of many city-states with autonomous governance. Although there were numerous settlements, general scholarship does not characterize Harappan civilization as dozens of city-states with fully independent sovereignties in the Mesopotamian sense; administrative integration seems more complex.

Option 4: 'Home to a single capital (Mohenjo-Daro) controlling all other cities.' This suggests a highly centralized imperial model with one capital exerting direct control. The available archaeological and historical interpretations do not support a unilaterally centralized system dominated by Mohenjo-Daro; the planaments point to a networked urban system rather than a single-capital empire.

Option 5: 'Divided into four capitals controlling various secondary centres.' This option presents a model where multiple capitals coordinate a broader network of secondary towns, which aligns with interpretations of the Harappan urban pattern as a multi-core system. The notion of several metropolitan nuclei with subordinate settlements fits the observed distribution of large sites and their interconnections, reflecting regional diversification rather than a single-center or two-center scheme.

Additional analysis: When evaluating statements about ancient urban organization, it is crucial to consider how city size, distribution, and material culture inform governance models. The Harappan civilization shows variability in site size and a wide geographic spread, suggesting a hierarchical but distributed urban syntax rather than a strictly centralized or binary arrangement. The 'four capitals' framing captures the idea of several major urban cores guiding a network, which is a plausible reading of the evidence about Harappan regional diversity.

ARCH100 OL01 Midterm Exam # 2 - March 17-23, 2025

Based on city size alone, it has been suggested that Harappan culture was ____________________.

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