Uncontacted contemporaries · 1,400 overlapping years

Indus Valley Civilization Kingdom of Ebla

For 1,400 years — from 3,000 BCE to 1,600 BCE — both civilizations existed simultaneously. Neither this dataset nor the historical record shows any documented trade, war, or diplomatic contact between them.

3,300 BCE 1,300 BCE

Indus Valley Civilization

3,300 BCE–1,300 BCE

Kingdom of Ebla

3,000 BCE–1,600 BCE

↑ Overlap begins, 3,000 BCE

Indus Valley Civilization

Indus River Basin, South Asia

A Bronze Age civilization of remarkably uniform, well-planned cities whose script remains undeciphered today.

Kingdom of Ebla

Northern Syria

Known almost entirely from a vast clay-tablet archive that survived its city's destruction, revealing a sophisticated Bronze Age bureaucracy.

Traits both developed independently

With no documented contact, any shared trait below represents independent development rather than transmission from one to the other.

Monumental architecture Bronze metallurgy Irrigation agriculture Long-distance trade Urban planning

Indus Valley Civilization only

Seafaring

Kingdom of Ebla only

Standing army