#1 First recorded note of the ruins of the civilization was made by a British army deserter
<span><span>The first recorded note of the discovery of Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was made in an </span>1842<span> book by </span>James Lewis<span>. Lewis was a </span>British East India Company<span> soldier who deserted the army and while travelling through the </span>Punjab province in British India<span> saw the ruins of the ancient civilization at a small town called </span>Harappa<span>. By 1872, brick robbing had destroyed the upper layer of the site. These hard well-burnt bricks were primarily used to build a railway bed being constructed by the British. Though finds at Harappa were reported, it was not until </span>1920<span> that proper excavations began at Harappa under </span>John Marshall<span>, the then director of the </span>Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).<span> These excavations resulted in the discovery of IVC. Due to the common archaeological convention of naming a civilization after its first find-spot, IVC is also known as the </span>Harappan Civilization.</span>
#2 It is the largest of the four great ancient civilizations and probably the oldest
<span>Excavation of the sites of the Indus Valley Civilization is an on-going process and by 1999, 1,056 cities and settlementshad been found. IVC flourished in the basins of two major rivers: Indus River, which remains one of longest in Asia; and Ghaggar-Hakra River, which is identified by many scholars as the dried up form of what was once the Sarasvati River. IVC encompassed most of Pakistan, a significant part of India and parts of Afghanistan. With an area around the size of Western Europe, it is the largest of the four ancient civilizations of <span>Egypt, Mesopotamia, India </span>and<span> China</span>. The era in which IVC existed is not known yet. According to a May 2016 study published in the prestigious Nature journal, experts now believe that the Harappan Civilization is 8,000 years old – 2,500 years older than previously thought. This would make IVC older than the Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations.</span>