Bronze Age · c. 2600–1900 BC · Mohenjo-daro, Sindh, Pakistan
Indus city of Mohenjo-daro grew more equal as it prospered, study finds
University of York researchers analysed house sizes from old excavation records and found the gap between large and small homes narrowed as the city matured.
Peer-reviewed paper
Mohenjo-daro, Pakistan The gap between the largest and smallest houses in Mohenjo-daro narrowed as the city matured, according to a study by researchers at the University of York. Mohenjo-daro was the biggest city of the Indus civilisation. It is a Bronze Age centre around 4,000 years old.
By the city's later years, the team says, its wealth gap had fallen to levels typical of the first farming villages.
The study is published in the journal Antiquity. Adam Green of York's Department of Archaeology and Department of Environment and Geography led it. His co-authors are I. Alam and C. Petrie.
The study argues against a view long held by historians. In that view, villages grew into cities at the price of widening inequality. A small group of kings and priests took control of the wealth.
House size as a measure of wealth
Mohenjo-daro lies near the Indus River in Sindh province, Pakistan. It flourished in the second half of the third millennium BC.
The York team worked from legacy data. Archaeologists use this term for records and plans produced by earlier excavations. The team compared house sizes across the city's history. It treated the size of a home as a measure of a household's wealth.
Legacy data from the ancient city shows that as the city matured, the gap between the largest and smallest homes narrowed. In fact by its later years, the wealth gap in this massive urban centre had dropped to levels typical of the first farming villages.
Adam Green, University of York, lead author
The researchers found that Mohenjo-daro was more equal than its contemporaries in Mesopotamia and Greece. They also found that it became more egalitarian over time. Green contrasted the city with the monuments of other Bronze Age powers.
While ancient Egyptians were building pyramids for god-kings, and the Greeks were constructing massive palaces at Knossos, the people of the Indus were building something entirely different. Instead of gold-filled tombs and huge temples, Mohenjo-daro focused on sophisticated brick-lined drains and organised street layouts. Instead of allowing the perks of society to accumulate with a tiny elite, the city's amenities were widely distributed amongst the everyday households.
Adam Green, University of York, lead author
The team also reports that periods of lower inequality coincide with higher productivity. In Green's words: "In the period when inequality appears to be lowest, productivity appears to rise. It challenges the idea that prosperity requires us to concentrate decision-making powers in the hands of the few."
The authors suggest that sharing resources and power widely may have helped the city stay prosperous for centuries.
The size of a house is an indirect measure of wealth. The picture of a cooperative city is the team's reading of that evidence, together with other features of the site.
Green noted that Mohenjo-daro is often described by what it lacks: "the absence of palaces for kings, gold-filled tombs, and no statues of rulers. But what it does have is so important."
Seals turn up in ordinary homes
One strand of that evidence is where Indus seals are found. These are small engraved pieces of stone or ceramic, used as tools of business and trade. At Mohenjo-daro they typically turn up in ordinary houses rather than in public buildings. There was also no palace to monopolise these tools of administration.
The researchers take this as a sign that no single ruler hoarded resources. They also see it as a sign that the inhabitants worked together to ensure fair access to a good standard of living.
The researchers read the city's investment in drainage and street maintenance in the same way, as collective work for the public good. The Indus civilisation also used a standardised system of weights and measures across the region. The authors argue that this kept exchange fair for all citizens.
Sources
- Discovery Reveals That Mohenjo-Daro, One of the World’s Earliest Cities, Thrived While Reducing Its Wealth Gap (La Brújula Verde)
- One of world’s first cities prospered as wealth-gap shrank (Archaeology Wiki)
Paper: Green AS, Alam I, Petrie C. Inequality declined in the Bronze Age city of Mohenjo-daro. Antiquity. Published online 2026:1-16. doi:10.15184/aqy.2026.10359
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