A fortification (also called a fort , fortress , fastness , or stronghold ) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare , and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime . The term is derived from Latin fortis ("strong") and facere ("to make").
125-456: Landguard Fort is a fort at the mouth of the River Orwell outside Felixstowe , Suffolk , designed to guard the mouth of the river. It is now managed by the charity English Heritage and is open to the public. Originally known as Langer Fort, the first fortifications from 1540 were a few earthworks and blockhouse , but it was King James I who ordered, from 1621, the construction of
250-668: A UNESCO effort tasked to conserve the site at Mohenjo-daro. Other international efforts at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa have included the German Aachen Research Project Mohenjo-daro , the Italian Mission to Mohenjo-daro , and the US Harappa Archaeological Research Project (HARP) founded by George F. Dales . Following a chance flash flood which exposed a portion of an archaeological site at
375-430: A ravelin like angular gun platform screening one of the curtain walls which is protected from flanking fire from the towers of the main part of the fort. Another example is the fortifications of Rhodes which were frozen in 1522 so that Rhodes is the only European walled town that still shows the transition between the classical medieval fortification and the modern ones. A manual about the construction of fortification
500-643: A "relatively uniform" material culture in terms of pottery styles, ornaments, and stamp seals with Indus script , leading into the transition to the Mature Harappan phase. According to Giosan et al. (2012), the slow southward migration of the monsoons across Asia initially allowed the Indus Valley villages to develop by taming the floods of the Indus and its tributaries. Flood-supported farming led to large agricultural surpluses, which in turn supported
625-465: A continuity in cultural development but a change in population. According to Lukacs and Hemphill, while there is a strong continuity between the neolithic and chalcolithic (Copper Age) cultures of Mehrgarh, dental evidence shows that the chalcolithic population did not descend from the neolithic population of Mehrgarh, which "suggests moderate levels of gene flow." Mascarenhas et al. (2015) note that "new, possibly West Asian, body types are reported from
750-521: A double wall of trenches and ramparts, and in the Congo forests concealed ditches and paths, along with the main works, often bristled with rows of sharpened stakes. Inner defenses were laid out to blunt an enemy penetration with a maze of defensive walls allowing for entrapment and crossfire on opposing forces. A military tactic of the Ashanti was to create powerful log stockades at key points. This
875-524: A highly uniform and well-planned grid pattern, suggesting they were planned by a central authority; extraordinary uniformity of Harappan artefacts as evident in pottery, seals, weights and bricks; presence of public facilities and monumental architecture; heterogeneity in the mortuary symbolism and in grave goods (items included in burials). These are some major theories: Harappans evolved some new techniques in metallurgy and produced copper, bronze , lead, and tin . A touchstone bearing gold streaks
1000-571: A hundred excavated, there are five major urban centres: Mohenjo-daro in the lower Indus Valley (declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980 as " Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro "), Harappa in the western Punjab region , Ganeriwala in the Cholistan Desert , Dholavira in western Gujarat (declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021 as " Dholavira: A Harappan City "), and Rakhigarhi in Haryana . The Harappan language
1125-547: A joint discussion. By 1924, Marshall had become convinced of the significance of the finds, and on 24 September 1924, made a tentative but conspicuous public intimation in the Illustrated London News : "Not often has it been given to archaeologists, as it was given to Schliemann at Tiryns and Mycenae , or to Stein in the deserts of Turkestan , to light upon the remains of a long forgotten civilisation. It looks, however, at this moment, as if we were on
1250-413: A keep-like design and the river frontage was rebuilt with a new casemated battery covered by a very unusual caponier with a quarter-sphere bombproof nose. Several open bastions were enclosed, and a mock ravelin block was constructed to house a submarine mining contingent. Two landscapes were commissioned, c.1755, from Thomas Gainsborough - then still little-known and living at Ipswich (1750-9) - for
1375-413: A necessity for many cities. Amnya Fort in western Siberia has been described by archaeologists as one of the oldest known fortified settlements, as well as the northernmost Stone Age fort. In Bulgaria, near the town of Provadia a walled fortified settlement today called Solnitsata starting from 4700 BC had a diameter of about 300 feet (91 m), was home to 350 people living in two-storey houses, and
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#17327794857161500-621: A new viceroy of India, Lord Curzon , pushed through the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act 1904 , and appointed John Marshall to lead the ASI. Several years later, Hiranand Sastri , who had been assigned by Marshall to survey Harappa, reported it to be of non-Buddhist origin, and by implication more ancient. Expropriating Harappa for the ASI under the Act, Marshall directed ASI archaeologist Daya Ram Sahni to excavate
1625-591: A result, very very few kotas still stand to this day. Notable kotas: During Muhammad 's era in Arabia, many tribes made use of fortifications. In the Battle of the Trench , the largely outnumbered defenders of Medina, mainly Muslims led by Islamic prophet Muhammad, dug a trench , which together with Medina's natural fortifications, rendered the confederate cavalry (consisting of horses and camels ) useless, locking
1750-547: A series of straight lines creating the central fortified area that gives this style of fortification its name. Indus Valley Civilization The Indus Valley Civilisation ( IVC ), also known as the Indus Civilisation , was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia , lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE. Together with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia , it
1875-599: A site whose entire upper layer had been stripped in the interim. Although his original goal of demonstrating Harappa to be a lost Buddhist city mentioned in the seventh century CE travels of the Chinese visitor, Xuanzang , proved elusive, Cunningham did publish his findings in 1875. For the first time, he interpreted a Harappan stamp seal , with its unknown script, which he concluded to be of an origin foreign to India. Archaeological work in Harappa thereafter lagged until
2000-533: A square fort with bulwarks at each corner. In 1667, the Dutch , under Michiel de Ruyter , landed a force of 2,000 men on Felixstowe beach in front of (what is now called) Undercliff Road East and advanced on to the fort, but were repulsed by Nathaniel Darrel and his garrison of 400 musketeers of the Duke of York & Albany's Maritime Regiment (the first Royal Marines ) and 100 artillerymen with 54 cannon. The fort
2125-570: A tradition in archaeology, the civilisation is sometimes referred to as the Harappan, after its type site , Harappa , the first site to be excavated in the 1920s; this is notably true of usage employed by the Archaeological Survey of India after India's independence in 1947. The term "Ghaggar-Hakra" figures prominently in modern labels applied to the Indus civilisation on account of a good number of sites having been found along
2250-561: Is also an intermediate branch known as semi-permanent fortification. Castles are fortifications which are regarded as being distinct from the generic fort or fortress in that they are a residence of a monarch or noble and command a specific defensive territory. Roman forts and hill forts were the main antecedents of castles in Europe, which emerged in the 9th century in the Carolingian Empire . The Early Middle Ages saw
2375-428: Is another example of a Gaulish fortified settlement. The term casemate wall is used in the archaeology of Israel and the wider Near East , having the meaning of a double wall protecting a city or fortress, with transverse walls separating the space between the walls into chambers. These could be used as such, for storage or residential purposes, or could be filled with soil and rocks during siege in order to raise
2500-548: Is employed when in the course of a campaign it becomes desirable to protect some locality with the best imitation of permanent defences that can be made in a short time, ample resources and skilled civilian labour being available. An example of this is the construction of Roman forts in England and in other Roman territories where camps were set up with the intention of staying for some time, but not permanently. Castles are fortifications which are regarded as being distinct from
2625-519: Is formally known as poliorcetics . In some texts, this latter term also applies to the art of building a fortification. Fortification is usually divided into two branches: permanent fortification and field fortification. Permanent fortifications are erected at leisure, with all the resources that a state can supply of constructive and mechanical skill, and are built of enduring materials. Field fortifications—for example breastworks —and often known as fieldworks or earthworks, are extemporized by troops in
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#17327794857162750-490: Is no conclusive evidence of palaces or temples. Some structures are thought to have been granaries. Found at one city is an enormous well-built bath (the " Great Bath "), which may have been a public bath. Although the citadels were walled, it is far from clear that these structures were defensive. Most city dwellers appear to have been traders or artisans, who lived with others pursuing the same occupation in well-defined neighbourhoods. Materials from distant regions were used in
2875-507: Is not directly attested, and its affiliations are uncertain, as the Indus script has remained undeciphered. A relationship with the Dravidian or Elamo-Dravidian language family is favoured by a section of scholars. The Indus civilisation is named after the Indus river system in whose alluvial plains the early sites of the civilisation were identified and excavated. Following
3000-462: Is shown by their dockyards, granaries , warehouses, brick platforms, and protective walls. The massive walls of Indus cities most likely protected the Harappans from floods and may have dissuaded military conflicts. The purpose of the citadel remains debated. In sharp contrast to this civilisation's contemporaries, Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt , no large monumental structures were built. There
3125-425: Is sometimes called Mature Harappan to distinguish it from the earlier cultures. The cities of the ancient Indus were noted for their urban planning , baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, clusters of large non-residential buildings, and techniques of handicraft and metallurgy . Mohenjo-daro and Harappa very likely grew to contain between 30,000 and 60,000 individuals, and
3250-695: The British Raj are found in the mainland Indian subcontinent (modern day India , Pakistan , Bangladesh and Nepal ). "Fort" is the word used in India for all old fortifications. Numerous Indus Valley Civilization sites exhibit evidence of fortifications. By about 3500 BC, hundreds of small farming villages dotted the Indus floodplain. Many of these settlements had fortifications and planned streets. The stone and mud brick houses of Kot Diji were clustered behind massive stone flood dykes and defensive walls, for neighbouring communities bickered constantly about
3375-599: The Ghaggar-Hakra River in northwest India and eastern Pakistan. The terms "Indus-Sarasvati Civilisation" and "Sindhu-Saraswati Civilisation" have also been employed in the literature by supporters of Indigenous Aryanism , after a posited identification of the Ghaggar-Hakra with the river Sarasvati described in the early chapters of the Rigveda , a collection of hymns in archaic Sanskrit composed in
3500-637: The Indus Valley Civilization were the first small cities to be fortified. In ancient Greece , large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece , such as the ancient site of Mycenae (known for the huge stone blocks of its ' cyclopean ' walls). A Greek phrourion was a fortified collection of buildings used as a military garrison , and is the equivalent of the Roman castellum or fortress. These constructions mainly served
3625-1205: The Maratha Empire . A large majority of forts in India are in North India. The most notable forts are the Red Fort at Old Delhi , the Red Fort at Agra , the Chittor Fort and Mehrangarh Fort in Rajasthan , the Ranthambhor Fort , Amer Fort and Jaisalmer Fort also in Rajasthan and Gwalior Fort in Madhya Pradesh . Arthashastra , the Indian treatise on military strategy describes six major types of forts differentiated by their major modes of defenses. Forts in Sri Lanka date back thousands of years, with many being built by Sri Lankan kings. These include several walled cities. With
3750-586: The Mediterranean . The fortifications were continuously being expanded and improved. Around 600 BC, in Heuneburg , Germany, forts were constructed with a limestone foundation supported by a mudbrick wall approximately 4 metres tall, probably topped by a roofed walkway, thus reaching a total height of 6 metres. The wall was clad with lime plaster, regularly renewed. Towers protruded outwards from it. The Oppidum of Manching (German: Oppidum von Manching)
3875-569: The Napoleonic wars . Most of the colonial forts were garrisoned up until the early 20th century. The coastal forts had coastal artillery manned by the Ceylon Garrison Artillery during the two world wars. Most of these were abandoned by the military but retained civil administrative officers, while others retained military garrisons, which were more administrative than operational. Some were reoccupied by military units with
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4000-527: The Nordic states and in Britain , the fortifications of Berwick-upon-Tweed and the harbour archipelago of Suomenlinna at Helsinki being fine examples. During the 18th century, it was found that the continuous enceinte , or main defensive enclosure of a bastion fortress, could not be made large enough to accommodate the enormous field armies which were increasingly being employed in Europe; neither could
4125-707: The Old City of Shanghai , Suzhou , Xi'an and the walled villages of Hong Kong . The famous walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing were established in the early 15th century by the Yongle Emperor . The Forbidden City made up the inner portion of the Beijing city fortifications . During the Spanish Era several forts and outposts were built throughout the archipelago. Most notable is Intramuros ,
4250-618: The Siege of Ta'if in January 630, Muhammad ordered his followers to attack enemies who fled from the Battle of Hunayn and sought refuge in the fortress of Taif. The entire city of Kerma in Nubia (present day Sudan) was encompassed by fortified walls surrounded by a ditch. Archaeology has revealed various Bronze Age bastions and foundations constructed of stone together with either baked or unfired brick. The walls of Benin are described as
4375-634: The Tang dynasty (618–907 AD). The Great Wall of China had been built since the Qin dynasty (221–207 BC), although its present form was mostly an engineering feat and remodelling of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644 AD). In addition to the Great Wall, a number of Chinese cities also employed the use of defensive walls to defend their cities. Notable Chinese city walls include the city walls of Hangzhou , Nanjing ,
4500-828: The Theodosian Walls of Constantinople , together with partial remains elsewhere. These are mostly city gates, like the Porta Nigra in Trier or Newport Arch in Lincoln . Hadrian's Wall was built by the Roman Empire across the width of what is now northern England following a visit by Roman Emperor Hadrian (AD 76–138) in AD ;122. A number of forts dating from the Later Stone Age to
4625-491: The water buffalo . Early Harappan communities turned to large urban centres by 2600 BCE, from where the mature Harappan phase started. The latest research shows that Indus Valley people migrated from villages to cities. The final stages of the Early Harappan period are characterised by the building of large walled settlements, the expansion of trade networks, and the increasing integration of regional communities into
4750-401: The "Great Wall of Brodgar" it was 4 metres (13 ft) thick and 4 metres tall. The wall had some symbolic or ritualistic function. The Assyrians deployed large labour forces to build new palaces , temples and defensive walls. In Bronze Age Malta , some settlements also began to be fortified. The most notable surviving example is Borġ in-Nadur , where a bastion built in around 1500 BC
4875-530: The 19th and early 20th centuries. The advances in modern warfare since World War I have made large-scale fortifications obsolete in most situations. Many United States Army installations are known as forts, although they are not always fortified. During the pioneering era of North America, many outposts on the frontiers, even non-military outposts, were referred to generically as forts. Larger military installations may be called fortresses; smaller ones were once known as fortalices. The word fortification can refer to
5000-566: The ASI attempted to "Indianise" archaeological work in keeping with the new nation's goals of national unity and historical continuity, in Pakistan the national imperative was the promotion of Islamic heritage, and consequently archaeological work on early sites was left to foreign archaeologists. After the partition, Mortimer Wheeler, the Director of ASI from 1944, oversaw the establishment of archaeological institutions in Pakistan, later joining
5125-619: The Company any historical artifacts acquired during his travels. Masson, who had versed himself in the classics , especially in the military campaigns of Alexander the Great , chose for his wanderings some of the same towns that had featured in Alexander's campaigns, and whose archaeological sites had been noted by the campaign's chroniclers. Masson's major archaeological discovery in the Punjab
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5250-991: The Early Harappan, Mature Harappan, and Late Harappan phases. Mehrgarh is a Neolithic (7000 BCE to c. 2500 BCE ) mountain site in the Balochistan province of Pakistan , which gave new insights on the emergence of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Mehrgarh is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming and herding in South Asia . Mehrgarh was influenced by the Near Eastern Neolithic, with similarities between "domesticated wheat varieties, early phases of farming, pottery, other archaeological artefacts, some domesticated plants and herd animals." Jean-Francois Jarrige argues for an independent origin of Mehrgarh. Jarrige notes "the assumption that farming economy
5375-589: The Fort and nearby structures were: Observers on top of Landguard Fort witnessed and plotted many air raids, German minelaying actions, shipwrecks and air crashes. In 1944, in a probable false alarm, the Landguard guns opened up on supposed German midget-sub raiders in the harbour entrance. Later that year, Allied landing ships loaded at the former RAF piers just to the north. The 10-inch gun pit in Left Battery
5500-666: The Fort with the supply and ammunition stores moved across to Harwich for safety. The badly-disciplined garrison had drunk gin found on a captured smugglers' boat leading to the death of four soldiers, probably from alcohol poisoning . During the Second World War , Landguard Fort was used as one of the launch sites of Operation Outward . This was a project to attack Germany by means of free-flying hydrogen balloons that carried incendiary devices or trailing steel wires (intended to damage power lines.) Between 1942 and 1944, many thousands of balloons were launched. The main uses of
5625-448: The Ghaggar-Hakra system might yield more sites than the Indus river basin. According to archaeologist Ratnagar, many Ghaggar-Hakra sites in India and Indus Valley sites in Pakistan are actually those of local cultures; some sites display contact with Harappan civilisation, but only a few are fully developed Harappan ones. As of 1977, about 90% of the Indus script seals and inscribed objects discovered were found at sites in Pakistan along
5750-634: The Governor's Quarters at Landguard by his friend Philip Thicknesse, Lt. Governor of Landguard Fort . These were later destroyed by the damp conditions at the Fort, but an engraving of one of them survives. In the Napoleonic Wars , the strength and combat readiness of the Fort caused the Army repeated concern. In 1801, General Lord Cornwallis, Eastern District commander-in-chief visited Landguard Fort. After 1804 steps were taken to extend and strengthen
5875-558: The Harappan civilisation lasted from c. 2600 –1900 BCE. With the inclusion of the predecessor and successor cultures – Early Harappan and Late Harappan, respectively – the entire Indus Valley Civilisation may be taken to have lasted from the 33rd to the 14th centuries BCE. It is part of the Indus Valley Tradition, which also includes the pre-Harappan occupation of Mehrgarh, the earliest farming site of
6000-571: The Indus Civilization , London: Arthur Probsthain, 1931. The first modern accounts of the ruins of the Indus civilisation are those of Charles Masson , a deserter from the East India Company 's army. In 1829, Masson traveled through the princely state of Punjab, gathering useful intelligence for the Company in return for a promise of clemency. An aspect of this arrangement was the additional requirement to hand over to
6125-616: The Indus River Valley site of Mehrgarh and is dated to 7,000 YBP ." The Early Harappan Ravi Phase, named after the nearby Ravi River , lasted from c. 3300 BCE until 2800 BCE. It started when farmers from the mountains gradually moved between their mountain homes and the lowland river valleys, and is related to the Hakra Phase , identified in the Ghaggar-Hakra River Valley to
6250-791: The Indus Valley Civilisation, in the Gomal River valley in northwestern Pakistan, at Manda, Jammu on the Beas River near Jammu , and at Alamgirpur on the Hindon River , only 28 km (17 mi) from Delhi. The southernmost site of the Indus Valley Civilisation is Daimabad in Maharashtra . Indus Valley sites have been found most often on rivers, but also on the ancient seacoast, for example, Balakot ( Kot Bala ), and on islands, for example, Dholavira . "Three other scholars whose names I cannot pass over in silence, are
6375-458: The Indus Valley Civilization were fortified. Forts also appeared in urban cities of the Gangetic valley during the second urbanisation period between 600 and 200 BC, and as many as 15 fortification sites have been identified by archaeologists throughout the Gangetic valley, such as Kaushambi , Mahasthangarh , Pataliputra , Mathura , Ahichchhatra , Rajgir , and Lauria Nandangarh . The earliest Mauryan period brick fortification occurs in one of
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#17327794857166500-411: The Indus Valley. Several periodisations are employed for the IVC. The most commonly used classifies the Indus Valley Civilisation into Early, Mature and Late Harappan Phase. An alternative approach by Shaffer divides the broader Indus Valley Tradition into four eras, the pre-Harappan "Early Food Producing Era", and the Regionalisation, Integration, and Localisation eras, which correspond roughly with
6625-573: The Indus river, while other sites accounts only for the remaining 10%. By 2002, over 1,000 Mature Harappan cities and settlements had been reported, of which just under a hundred had been excavated, mainly in the general region of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra rivers and their tributaries; however, there are only five major urban sites: Harappa , Mohenjo-daro , Dholavira , Ganeriwala and Rakhigarhi . As of 2008, about 616 sites have been reported in India, whereas 406 sites have been reported in Pakistan. Unlike India, in which after 1947,
6750-455: The Iron Age and peaking in Iron Age II (10th–6th century BC). However, the construction of casemate walls had begun to be replaced by sturdier solid walls by the 9th century BC , probably due the development of more effective battering rams by the Neo-Assyrian Empire . Casemate walls could surround an entire settlement, but most only protected part of it. The three different types included freestanding casemate walls, then integrated ones where
6875-551: The Kot Diji related material". He sees these areas as "catalytic in producing the fusion from Hakra, Kot Dijian and Amri-Nal cultural elements that resulted in the gestalt we recognize as Early Harappan (Early Indus)." By 2600 BCE, the Early Harappan communities turned into large urban centres. Such urban centres include Harappa , Ganeriwala , Mohenjo-daro in modern-day Pakistan, and Dholavira , Kalibangan , Rakhigarhi , Rupar , and Lothal in modern-day India. In total, more than 1,000 settlements have been found, mainly in
7000-408: The alluvial plain of the Indus and its tributaries. In addition, there was a region with disparate flora, fauna, and habitats, up to ten times as large, which had been shaped culturally and economically by the Indus. Around 6500 BCE, agriculture emerged in Balochistan , on the margins of the Indus alluvium. In the following millennia, settled life made inroads into the Indus plains, setting
7125-409: The ancient site of Mycenae (famous for the huge stone blocks of its ' cyclopean ' walls). In classical era Greece , the city of Athens built two parallel stone walls, called the Long Walls , that reached their fortified seaport at Piraeus a few miles away. In Central Europe , the Celts built large fortified settlements known as oppida , whose walls seem partially influenced by those built in
7250-410: The arrival of cannons on the 14th century battlefield . Fortifications in the age of black powder evolved into much lower structures with greater use of ditches and earth ramparts that would absorb and disperse the energy of cannon fire. Walls exposed to direct cannon fire were very vulnerable, so were sunk into ditches fronted by earth slopes. This placed a heavy emphasis on the geometry of
7375-482: The citadel representing centralised authority and an increasingly urban quality of life. Another town of this stage was found at Kalibangan in India on the Hakra River. Trade networks linked this culture with related regional cultures and distant sources of raw materials, including lapis lazuli and other materials for bead-making. By this time, villagers had domesticated numerous crops, including peas , sesame seeds , dates , and cotton, as well as animals, including
7500-514: The cities for constructing seals, beads and other objects. Among the artefacts discovered were beautiful glazed faïence beads. Steatite seals have images of animals, people (perhaps gods), and other types of inscriptions, including the yet un-deciphered writing system of the Indus Valley Civilisation . Some of the seals were used to stamp clay on trade goods. Although some houses were larger than others, Indus civilisation cities were remarkable for their apparent, if relative, egalitarianism . All
7625-437: The civilisation may have contained between one and five million individuals during its florescence. A gradual drying of the region during the 3rd millennium BCE may have been the initial stimulus for its urbanisation. Eventually it also reduced the water supply enough to cause the civilisation's demise and to disperse its population to the east. Although over a thousand Mature Harappan sites have been reported and nearly
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#17327794857167750-506: The control of prime agricultural land. The fortification varies by site. While Dholavira has stone-built fortification walls, Harrapa is fortified using baked bricks; sites such as Kalibangan exhibit mudbrick fortifications with bastions and Lothal has a quadrangular fortified layout. Evidence also suggested of fortifications in Mohenjo-daro . Even a small town—for instance, Kotada Bhadli, exhibiting sophisticated fortification-like bastions—shows that nearly all major and minor towns of
7875-407: The creation of some towns built around castles. Medieval-style fortifications were largely made obsolete by the arrival of cannons in the 14th century. Fortifications in the age of black powder evolved into much lower structures with greater use of ditches and earth ramparts that would absorb and disperse the energy of cannon fire. Walls exposed to direct cannon fire were very vulnerable, so
8000-620: The current level of military development. During the Renaissance era , the Venetian Republic raised great walls around cities, and the finest examples, among others, are in Nicosia (Cyprus), Rocca di Manerba del Garda (Lombardy), and Palmanova (Italy), or Dubrovnik (Croatia), which proved to be futile against attacks but still stand to this day. Unlike the Venetians, the Ottomans used to build smaller fortifications but in greater numbers, and only rarely fortified entire settlements such as Počitelj , Vratnik , and Jajce in Bosnia . Medieval-style fortifications were largely made obsolete by
8125-410: The death rate increased, as the close living conditions of humans and domesticated animals led to an increase in contagious diseases. According to one estimate, the population of the Indus civilisation at its peak may have been between one and five million. During its height the civilisation extended from Balochistan in the west to western Uttar Pradesh in the east, from northeastern Afghanistan in
8250-435: The defences be constructed far enough away from the fortress town to protect the inhabitants from bombardment by the besiegers, the range of whose guns was steadily increasing as better manufactured weapons were introduced. Threfore, since refortifying the Prussian fortress cities of Koblenz and Cologne after 1815, the principle of the ring fortress or girdle fortress was used: forts, each several hundred metres out from
8375-409: The development of cities. The IVC residents did not develop irrigation capabilities, relying mainly on the seasonal monsoons leading to summer floods. Brooke further notes that the development of advanced cities coincides with a reduction in rainfall, which may have triggered a reorganisation into larger urban centres. According to J.G. Shaffer and D.A. Lichtenstein, the Mature Harappan civilisation
8500-405: The dissolution of the East India Company and the establishment of Crown rule in India , archaeology on the subcontinent became more formally organised with the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Alexander Cunningham , the Survey's first director-general, who had visited Harappa in 1853 and had noted the imposing brick walls, visited again to carry out a survey, but this time of
8625-491: The escalation of the Sri Lankan Civil War ; Jaffna fort , for example, came under siege several times. Large tempered earth (i.e. rammed earth ) walls were built in ancient China since the Shang dynasty ( c. 1600 –1050 BC); the capital at ancient Ao had enormous walls built in this fashion (see siege for more info). Although stone walls were built in China during the Warring States (481–221 BC), mass conversion to stone architecture did not begin in earnest until
8750-400: The field, perhaps assisted by such local labour and tools as may be procurable and with materials that do not require much preparation, such as soil, brushwood, and light timber , or sandbags (see sangar ). An example of field fortification was the construction of Fort Necessity by George Washington in 1754. There is also an intermediate branch known as semi-permanent fortification. This
8875-401: The foot of the Bolan Pass in Balochistan , excavations were carried out in Mehrgarh by French archaeologist Jean-François Jarrige and his team in the early 1970s. The cities of the ancient Indus had "social hierarchies, their writing system, their large planned cities and their long-distance trade [which] mark them to archaeologists as a full-fledged 'civilisation.'" The mature phase of
9000-475: The fortification to allow defensive cannonry interlocking fields of fire to cover all approaches to the lower and thus more vulnerable walls. The evolution of this new style of fortification can be seen in transitional forts such as Sarzanello in North West Italy which was built between 1492 and 1502. Sarzanello consists of both crenellated walls with towers typical of the medieval period but also has
9125-532: The frontiers of the Nile Valley to protect against invaders from neighbouring territories, as well as circle-shaped mud brick walls around their cities. Many of the fortifications of the ancient world were built with mud brick, often leaving them no more than mounds of dirt for today's archaeologists. A massive prehistoric stone wall surrounded the ancient temple of Ness of Brodgar 3200 BC in Scotland . Named
9250-433: The general region of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra Rivers and their tributaries. A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture is evident in the Indus Valley Civilisation, making them the first urban centre in the region. The quality of municipal town planning suggests the knowledge of urban planning and efficient municipal governments which placed a high priority on hygiene , or, alternatively, accessibility to
9375-504: The generic fort or fortress in that it describes a residence of a monarch or noble and commands a specific defensive territory. An example of this is the massive medieval castle of Carcassonne . Defensive fences for protecting humans and domestic animals against predators was used long before the appearance of writing and began "perhaps with primitive man blocking the entrances of his caves for security from large carnivores ". From very early history to modern times, walls have been
9500-571: The graves of Mehrgarh beginning in the Togau phase (3800 BCE)." Gallego Romero et al. (2011) state that their research on lactose tolerance in India suggests that "the west Eurasian genetic contribution identified by Reich et al. (2009) principally reflects gene flow from Iran and the Middle East." They further note that "[t]he earliest evidence of cattle herding in South Asia comes from
9625-532: The height of the Maguindanao Sultanate 's power, they blanketed the areas around Western Mindanao with kotas and other fortifications to block the Spanish advance into the region. These kotas were usually made of stone and bamboo or other light materials and surrounded by trench networks. As a result, some of these kotas were burned easily or destroyed. With further Spanish campaigns in the region,
9750-411: The houses had access to water and drainage facilities. This gives the impression of a society with relatively low wealth concentration . Archaeological records provide no immediate answers for a centre of power or for depictions of people in power in Harappan society. But, there are indications of complex decisions being taken and implemented. For instance, the majority of the cities were constructed in
9875-413: The inner wall was part of the outer buildings of the settlement, and finally filled casemate walls, where the rooms between the walls were filled with soil right away, allowing for a quick, but nevertheless stable construction of particularly high walls. The Romans fortified their cities with massive, mortar-bound stone walls. The most famous of these are the largely extant Aurelian Walls of Rome and
10000-402: The intervals between them. The arrival of explosive shells in the 19th century led to yet another stage in the evolution of fortification. Star forts did not fare well against the effects of high explosives and the intricate arrangements of bastions, flanking batteries and the carefully constructed lines of fire for the defending cannon could be rapidly disrupted by explosive shells. Worse,
10125-413: The large open ditches surrounding forts of this type were an integral part of the defensive scheme, as was the covered way at the edge of the counter scarp . The ditch was extremely vulnerable to bombardment with explosive shells. In response, military engineers evolved the polygonal style of fortification. The ditch became deep and vertically sided, cut directly into the native rock or soil, laid out as
10250-446: The late Mr. R. D. Banerji , to whom belongs the credit of having discovered, if not Mohenjo-daro itself, at any rate its high antiquity, and his immediate successors in the task of excavation, Messrs. M.S. Vats and K.N. Dikshit . ... no one probably except myself can fully appreciate the difficulties and hardships which they had to face in the three first seasons at Mohenjo-daro." — From, John Marshall (ed), Mohenjo-daro and
10375-490: The local population. Despite these reports, Harappa was raided even more perilously for its bricks after the British annexation of the Punjab in 1848–49. A considerable number were carted away as track ballast for the railway lines being laid in the Punjab. Nearly 160 km (100 mi) of railway track between Multan and Lahore , laid in the mid-1850s, was supported by Harappan bricks. In 1861, three years after
10500-480: The main antecedents of castles in Europe , which emerged in the 9th century in the Carolingian Empire . The Early Middle Ages saw the creation of some towns built around castles. These cities were only rarely protected by simple stone walls and more usually by a combination of both walls and ditches . From the 12th century, hundreds of settlements of all sizes were founded all across Europe, which very often obtained
10625-513: The means of religious ritual. As seen in Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and the recently partially excavated Rakhigarhi , this urban plan included the world's first known urban sanitation systems . Within the city, individual homes or groups of homes obtained water from wells . From a room that appears to have been set aside for bathing, waste water was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets. Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes. The housebuilding in some villages in
10750-718: The north to Gujarat state in the south. The largest number of sites are in the Punjab region , Gujarat, Haryana , Rajasthan , Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir states, Sindh , and Balochistan. Coastal settlements extended from Sutkagan Dor in Western Baluchistan to Lothal in Gujarat. An Indus Valley site has been found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in Afghanistan which is the northernmost site of
10875-539: The old walled city of Manila located along the southern bank of the Pasig River . The historic city was home to centuries-old churches, schools, convents, government buildings and residences, the best collection of Spanish colonial architecture before much of it was destroyed by the bombs of World War II . Of all the buildings within the 67-acre city, only one building, the San Agustin Church, survived
11000-516: The one led by Mortimer Wheeler , a new director-general of the ASI appointed in 1944, and including Ahmad Hasan Dani . After the partition of India in 1947, when most excavated sites of the Indus Valley Civilisation lay in territory awarded to Pakistan, the Archaeological Survey of India, its area of authority reduced, carried out large numbers of surveys and excavations along the Ghaggar-Hakra system in India. Some speculated that
11125-440: The original enceinte, were carefully sited so as to make best use of the terrain and to be capable of mutual support with the neighbouring forts. Gone were citadels surrounding towns: forts were to be moved to the outside of the cities some 12 km to keep the enemy at a distance so their artillery could not bombard the city center. From now on a ring of forts were to be built at a spacing that would allow them to effectively cover
11250-687: The outset of colonial rule in the Indian Ocean , Sri Lanka was occupied by several major colonial empires that from time to time became the dominant power in the Indian Ocean. The colonists built several western-style forts, mostly in and around the coast of the island. The first to build colonial forts in Sri Lanka were the Portuguese ; these forts were captured and later expanded by the Dutch . The British occupied these Dutch forts during
11375-409: The practice of improving an area's defense with defensive works. City walls are fortifications but are not necessarily called fortresses. The art of setting out a military camp or constructing a fortification traditionally has been called castrametation since the time of the Roman legions . Laying siege to a fortification and of destroying it is commonly called siegecraft or siege warfare and
11500-471: The purpose of a watch tower, to guard certain roads, passes, and borders. Though smaller than a real fortress, they acted as a border guard rather than a real strongpoint to watch and maintain the border. The art of setting out a military camp or constructing a fortification traditionally has been called "castrametation" since the time of the Roman legions . Fortification is usually divided into two branches: permanent fortification and field fortification. There
11625-407: The region still resembles in some respects the housebuilding of the Harappans. The ancient Indus systems of sewerage and drainage that were developed and used in cities throughout the Indus region were far more advanced than any found in contemporary urban sites in the Middle East and even more efficient than those in many areas of Pakistan and India today. The advanced architecture of the Harappans
11750-656: The resistance of the outer wall against battering rams. Originally thought to have been introduced to the region by the Hittites , this has been disproved by the discovery of examples predating their arrival, the earliest being at Ti'inik (Taanach) where such a wall has been dated to the 16th century BC . Casemate walls became a common type of fortification in the Southern Levant between the Middle Bronze Age (MB) and Iron Age II, being more numerous during
11875-429: The right of fortification soon afterward. The founding of urban centres was an important means of territorial expansion and many cities, especially in eastern Europe , were founded precisely for this purpose during the period of Eastern Colonisation . These cities are easy to recognise due to their regular layout and large market spaces. The fortifications of these settlements were continuously improved to reflect
12000-612: The second-millennium BCE, which are unrelated to the mature phase of the Indus Valley Civilization. Recent geophysical research suggests that unlike the Sarasvati, described in the Rigveda as a snow-fed river, the Ghaggar-Hakra was a system of perennial monsoon-fed rivers, which became seasonal around the time that the civilisation diminished, approximately 4,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilisation
12125-464: The site's two mounds. Farther south, along the main stem of the Indus in Sind province, the largely undisturbed site of Mohenjo-daro had attracted notice. Marshall deputed a succession of ASI officers to survey the site. These included D. R. Bhandarkar (1911), R. D. Banerji (1919, 1922–1923), and M. S. Vats (1924). In 1923, on his second visit to Mohenjo-daro, Baneriji wrote to Marshall about
12250-417: The site, postulating an origin in "remote antiquity", and noting a congruence of some of its artifacts with those of Harappa. Later in 1923, Vats, also in correspondence with Marshall, noted the same more specifically about the seals and the script found at both sites. On the weight of these opinions, Marshall ordered crucial data from the two sites to be brought to one location and invited Banerji and Sahni to
12375-412: The stage for the growth of rural and urban settlements. The more organized sedentary life, in turn, led to a net increase in the birth rate. The large urban centres of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa very likely grew to containing between 30,000 and 60,000 individuals, and during the civilisation's florescence, the population of the subcontinent grew to between 4–6 million people. During this period
12500-489: The stockades by mounting old-fashioned bayonet charges, after laying down some covering fire. Defensive works were of importance in the tropical African Kingdoms. In the Kingdom of Kongo field fortifications were characterized by trenches and low earthen embankments. Such strongpoints ironically, sometimes held up much better against European cannon than taller, more imposing structures. Roman forts and hill forts were
12625-438: The stupa mounds of Lauria Nandangarh, which is 1.6 km in perimeter and oval in plan and encloses a habitation area. Mundigak ( c. 2500 BC ) in present-day south-east Afghanistan has defensive walls and square bastions of sun dried bricks. India currently has over 180 forts, with the state of Maharashtra alone having over 70 forts, which are also known as durg , many of them built by Shivaji , founder of
12750-636: The sultanate was subdued and a majority of kotas dismantled or destroyed. kotas were not only used by the Muslims as defense against Spaniards and other foreigners, renegades and rebels also built fortifications in defiance of other chiefs in the area. During the American occupation, rebels built strongholds and the datus, rajahs, or sultans often built and reinforced their kotas in a desperate bid to maintain rule over their subjects and their land. Many of these forts were also destroyed by American expeditions, as
12875-882: The threshold of such a discovery in the plains of the Indus." In the next issue, a week later, the British Assyriologist Archibald Sayce was able to point to very similar seals found in Bronze Age levels in Mesopotamia and Iran, giving the first strong indication of their date; confirmations from other archaeologists followed. Systematic excavations began in Mohenjo-daro in 1924–25 with that of K. N. Dikshit , continuing with those of H. Hargreaves (1925–1926), and Ernest J. H. Mackay (1927–1931). By 1931, much of Mohenjo-daro had been excavated, but occasional excavations continued, such as
13000-485: The two sides in a stalemate. Hoping to make several attacks at once, the confederates persuaded the Medina-allied Banu Qurayza to attack the city from the south. However, Muhammad's diplomacy derailed the negotiations, and broke up the confederacy against him. The well-organized defenders, the sinking of confederate morale, and poor weather conditions caused the siege to end in a fiasco. During
13125-536: The vicinity of the Ghaggar-Hakra , a seasonal river in northwest India and eastern Pakistan. The term Harappan is sometimes applied to the Indus Civilisation after its type site Harappa , the first to be excavated early in the 20th century in what was then the Punjab province of British India and is now Punjab, Pakistan . The discovery of Harappa and soon afterwards Mohenjo-daro
13250-499: The walls were sunk into ditches fronted by earth slopes to improve protection. The arrival of explosive shells in the 19th century led to another stage in the evolution of fortification. Star forts did not fare well against the effects of high explosives, and the intricate arrangements of bastions, flanking batteries and the carefully constructed lines of fire for the defending cannon could be rapidly disrupted by explosive shells. Steel -and- concrete fortifications were common during
13375-559: The war. Partial listing of Spanish forts: The Ivatan people of the northern islands of Batanes built their so-called idjang on hills and elevated areas to protect themselves during times of war. These fortifications were likened to European castles because of their purpose. Usually, the only entrance to the castles would be via a rope ladder that would only be lowered for the villagers and could be kept away when invaders arrived. The Igorots built forts made of stone walls that averaged several meters in width and about two to three times
13500-472: The west, and predates the Kot Diji Phase (2800–2600 BCE, Harappan 2), named after a site in northern Sindh , Pakistan, near Mohenjo-daro . The earliest examples of the Indus script date to the 3rd millennium BCE. The mature phase of earlier village cultures is represented by Rehman Dheri and Amri in Pakistan. Kot Diji represents the phase leading up to Mature Harappan, with
13625-410: The width in height around 2000 BC. The Muslim Filipinos of the south built strong fortresses called kota or moong to protect their communities. Usually, many of the occupants of these kotas are entire families rather than just warriors. Lords often had their own kotas to assert their right to rule, it served not only as a military installation but as a palace for the local Lord. It is said that at
13750-634: The world's second longest man-made structure, as well as the most extensive earthwork in the world, by the Guinness Book of Records, 1974 . The walls may have been constructed between the thirteenth and mid-fifteenth century CE or, during the first millennium CE. Strong citadels were also built other in areas of Africa. Yorubaland for example had several sites surrounded by the full range of earthworks and ramparts seen elsewhere, and sited on ground. This improved defensive potential—such as hills and ridges. Yoruba fortifications were often protected with
13875-568: Was "a fusion of the Bagor, Hakra, and Kot Diji traditions or 'ethnic groups' in the Ghaggar-Hakra valley on the borders of India and Pakistan". Also, according to a more recent summary by Maisels (2003), "The Harappan oecumene formed from a Kot Dijian/ Amri-Nal synthesis". He also says that, in the development of complexity, the site of Mohenjo-daro has priority, along with the Hakra-Ghaggar cluster of sites, "where Hakra wares actually precede
14000-618: Was Harappa, a metropolis of the Indus civilisation in the valley of Indus's tributary, the Ravi river . Masson made copious notes and illustrations of Harappa's rich historical artifacts, many lying half-buried. In 1842, Masson included his observations of Harappa in the book Narrative of Various Journeys in Baluchistan, Afghanistan, and the Punjab . He dated the Harappa ruins to a period of recorded history, erroneously mistaking it to have been described earlier during Alexander's campaign. Masson
14125-430: Was a large Celtic proto-urban or city-like settlement at modern-day Manching (near Ingolstadt), Bavaria (Germany). The settlement was founded in the 3rd century BC and existed until c. 50–30 BC . It reached its largest extent during the late La Tène period (late 2nd century BC), when it had a size of 380 hectares. At that time, 5,000 to 10,000 people lived within its 7.2 km long walls. The oppidum of Bibracte
14250-419: Was considered part of Essex in the 18th and 19th centuries; births and deaths within the garrison were recorded as 'Landguard Fort, Essex'. A new Fort battery was built in 1717, and a complete new fort on an adjoining site was started in 1745 to a pentagonal bastioned trace. New batteries were built in the 1750s and 1780s. The biggest change occurred in the 1870s when the interior barracks were rebuilt to
14375-543: Was converted into an Anti-aircraft Operations Room for Harwich in 1939. The Army left the Fort in 1957. The fort has been structurally consolidated. It is now under the guardianship of English Heritage and is open to the public. 51°56′20″N 1°19′16″E / 51.9389°N 1.3211°E / 51.9389; 1.3211 Fort From very early history to modern times, defensive walls have often been necessary for cities to survive in an ever-changing world of invasion and conquest . Some settlements in
14500-604: Was employed in later wars against the British to block British advances. Some of these fortifications were over a hundred yards long, with heavy parallel tree trunks. They were impervious to destruction by artillery fire. Behind these stockades, numerous Ashanti soldiers were mobilized to check enemy movement. While formidable in construction, many of these strongpoints failed because Ashanti guns, gunpowder and bullets were poor, and provided little sustained killing power in defense. Time and time again British troops overcame or bypassed
14625-521: Was encircled by a fortified wall. The huge walls around the settlement, which were built very tall and with stone blocks which are 6 feet (1.8 m) high and 4.5 feet (1.4 m) thick, make it one of the earliest walled settlements in Europe but it is younger than the walled town of Sesklo in Greece from 6800 BC. Uruk in ancient Sumer ( Mesopotamia ) is one of the world's oldest known walled cities . The Ancient Egyptians also built fortresses on
14750-499: Was found in Banawali , which was probably used for testing the purity of gold (such a technique is still used in some parts of India). The people of the Indus civilisation achieved great accuracy in measuring length, mass, and time. They were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights and measures. A comparison of available objects indicates large scale variation across the Indus territories. Their smallest division, which
14875-435: Was found. Exceptions were few—notably, ancient Sparta and ancient Rome did not have walls for a long time, choosing to rely on their militaries for defence instead. Initially, these fortifications were simple constructions of wood and earth, which were later replaced by mixed constructions of stones piled on top of each other without mortar . In ancient Greece , large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece , such as
15000-407: Was impressed by the site's extraordinary size and by several large mounds formed from long-existing erosion. Two years later, the Company contracted Alexander Burnes to sail up the Indus to assess the feasibility of water travel for its army. Burnes, who also stopped in Harappa, noted the baked bricks employed in the site's ancient masonry, but noted also the haphazard plundering of these bricks by
15125-594: Was introduced full-fledged from Near-East to South Asia," and the similarities between Neolithic sites from eastern Mesopotamia and the western Indus valley, which are evidence of a "cultural continuum" between those sites. But given the originality of Mehrgarh, Jarrige concludes that Mehrgarh has an earlier local background, and is not a "'backwater' of the Neolithic culture of the Near East". Lukacs and Hemphill suggest an initial local development of Mehrgarh, with
15250-505: Was one of three early civilisations of North Africa , Southwest Asia and South Asia , and of the three, the most widespread, its sites spanning an area including much of modern-day Pakistan , northwestern India and northeast Afghanistan . The civilisation flourished both in the alluvial plain of the Indus River , which flows through the length of Pakistan, and along a system of perennial monsoon -fed rivers that once coursed in
15375-478: Was published by Giovanni Battista Zanchi in 1554. Fortifications also extended in depth, with protected batteries for defensive cannonry, to allow them to engage attacking cannons to keep them at a distance and prevent them from bearing directly on the vulnerable walls. The result was star shaped fortifications with tier upon tier of hornworks and bastions , of which Fort Bourtange is an excellent example. There are also extensive fortifications from this era in
15500-694: Was roughly contemporary with the other riverine civilisations of the ancient world: Ancient Egypt along the Nile , Mesopotamia in the lands watered by the Euphrates and the Tigris , and China in the drainage basin of the Yellow River and the Yangtze . By the time of its mature phase, the civilisation had spread over an area larger than the others, which included a core of 1,500 kilometres (900 mi) up
15625-473: Was the culmination of work that had begun after the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India in the British Raj in 1861. There were earlier and later cultures called Early Harappan and Late Harappan in the same area. The early Harappan cultures were populated from Neolithic cultures, the earliest and best-known of which is named after Mehrgarh , in Balochistan , Pakistan. Harappan civilisation
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