Did an historical Indian civilization assist give rise to the Pharaohs? Maritime historian Nick Collins believes the Indus-Sarasvati area could have performed a hidden however decisive position in shaping Pharaonic Egypt—and he’s laying out a daring case that challenges long-held assumptions about early historical past.
In an in depth X thread, Collins, a British maritime historian, argues that the immense financial energy of the Indus-Sarasvati civilization wasn’t simply fueling distant commerce—it could have set off a series response that reworked Egypt into one of many historical world’s strongest empires.
“Did India’s Indus-Sarasvati area not directly result in the creation of Pharaonic Egypt?” Collins requested, earlier than outlining how the Mesopotamian city-state of Uruk, closely reliant on Indus items, could have invaded Egypt to safe what it lacked: gold.
In accordance with Collins, artifacts uncovered in Egypt’s Naqada area throughout Nineteenth-century excavations by pioneering archaeologist Flinders Petrie level to robust exterior influences. These included Sumerian-style mud-brick tombs, Afghan lapis lazuli generally utilized in Sumeria, pottery bearing boat motifs, and even cylinder seals resembling these utilized in Indus commerce.
“This wasn’t simply commerce affect,” Collins argues. “All recommend transplant, not affect.”
Different students have additionally questioned the usual narrative. He cites historian Peter James, who noticed architectural and ceramic similarities between Mesopotamia and Egypt. Jared Diamond, in the meantime, questioned the sudden look of hieroglyphs—an anomaly when in comparison with gradual linguistic evolution in different civilizations.
Then there are the myths. Each Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures share creation tales that includes cosmic waters—“Nun” in Egypt and “Nunki” in Sumer—together with the motif of “Seven Sages,” hinting at shared, presumably imported, cosmologies.
However what drove the invasion? Collins suggests it was gold. Whereas the Indus-Sarasvati area offered Sumer with necessities like meals, timber, spices, and lapis lazuli, Egypt’s major providing was its huge shops of gold—an asset deeply valued in historical India. “Invasion secured it,” he wrote.
He blames post-colonial tutorial tendencies and the lengthy shadow of the discredited Aryan Invasion Idea for sidelining the Indus-Sarasvati area’s wider world position. “Failure to review early maritime commerce… marginalised the Indus-Sarasvati space’s broad financial influence,” Collins said.
Finally, Collins believes the Indus-Sarasvati’s ignored financial attain could have sparked nothing lower than the start of Egypt’s first nice empire.
