ABSTRACT
This chapter explores chronological steps and describes how state-organized societies developed in South and Southeast Asia and China. More recent excavations have thrown Mortimer Wheeler's bold interpretation into doubt, but many details of the Harappan civilization of South Asia, one of the world's least known, came from his classic investigations of a half century ago. As the Mauryan empire came to an end in 185 BC, South Asia had become part of a vast trading network that linked the Mediterranean world to all parts of the Indian Ocean. The great burial mound measures more than 335 meters on each side and rises 43 meters above the surrounding countryside, 40 kilometers east of Xianyang on the banks of the Wei River. Inside lies what is said to be a replica of the royal domains, with China's great rivers recreated in mercury flowing, by some mechanical device, into the ocean.
