According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago.[1] However, the earliest known human remains in South Asia date to 30,000 years ago. Sedentariness, which involves the transition from foraging to farming and pastoralism, began in South Asia around 7000 BCE. At the site of Mehrgarh, its presence can be documented, with evidence of domestication of wheat and barley, rapidly followed by that of goats, sheep, and cattle.[2] By 4500 BCE, such settled life had increasingly spread, [2] and began to gradually evolve into the Indus Valley civilisation, which was contemporaneous with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. This civilisation flourished between 2500 BCE and 1900 BCE in present-day Pakistan and north-western India, and was noted for its urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage, and water supply.

According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago.^[1] However, the earliest known human remains in South Asia date to 30,000 years ago. Sedentariness, which involves the transition from foraging to farming and pastoralism, began in South Asia around 7000 BCE. At the site of Mehrgarh, its presence can be documented, with evidence of domestication of wheat and barley, rapidly followed by that of goats, sheep, and cattle.^[2] By 4500 BCE, such settled life had increasingly spread, ^[2] and began to gradually evolve into the Indus Valley civilisation, which was contemporaneous with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. This civilisation flourished between 2500 BCE and 1900 BCE in present-day Pakistan and north-western India, and was noted for its urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage, and water supply.