This is an idea which came to me when I heard of a newly-discovered, advanced civilization in the Kara Kum Desert east of the Caspian Sea called the Bactria/Margiana Archeology complex. What gave me the idea for this topic is that the Bactria/Margianans existed for the same short period as the Indus Valley Civilization (2200 BC to 1800 BC). During this same time frame, other communities which had relations with them included China, Egypt, Sumeria, and the Hattites.

These Bactria/Margianans used irrigation to grow wheat and barley at the oases, they carved intricate sculptures out of alabaster and marble, painted elaborate designs onto pottery (frequent pictures of local animal life), and forged their own distinct metal axes. On the other hand, they imported fine ceramics, jewelry, and bronze goods. They had buildings bigger than any in Mesopotamia or China and perhaps as large as the Great Pyramid.

At the southern end of the desert was an even older (4500 BC)community (but not so advanced) named Anau which is thought to be where the settlers of this new community came from. A tiny seal was recently discovered in Anau, which may have writing on it related to an eastern Chinese style of writing.....but much older (2300 BC compared to 1st and 2nd centuries BC). It either implies that this style of writing was invented closer to the western end of Asia and moved east (opposite to the current theory), or that someone from eastern China brought it here and dropped it at a date much earlier than they were thought to have developed it.

Among the things that I find interesting about the Indus Valley civilization are that they seemed to have no army and no organized religion. They were simply communities of tradespeople. These people had very high standards of quality over quantity. Rather than large statues, these people imported tiny little statues, representing not deities, but just collected things of beauty. They've been compared to ancient Barbie Dolls, with exchangeable wigs of different styles and colors. Since they were frequently carved out of alabaster, and since neither Egypt nor Sumeria had alabaster, and even further since the Bactria/Margianans worked with alabaster in great detail and lived just over the Hindu Kush from them, I assume these dolls came from there. I can't find where I put my list of commodities from the Indus Valley right now, but I do remember that they sold decorative conch shells to Mesopotamia. I also remember that the only ancient source of gemstones to outclass Egypt was India/Sri Lanka. Then too in ancient times, spices and ivory were always an export from here, though I can't guarantee that these trades were carried on this far back.

If it wasn't felt that RP such as this would warrant a separate topic for each of these lands, then one topic could be used with the country of origin for each post starting out the text, like in a newspaper byline. Trade, tourism, political visits, even war could be RP'd here, though I expect wars would best be discussed beforehand to be sure nobody's holdings are actually destroyed without their approval. Factual posts supporting this RP could be made in a factual topic such as suggested in Jojo's index as General Information/People and Gen Info/Geography.