Lesson 2 – Indus Valley Civilization
Think about this: Around 2,500 BC the farming villages of the Indus Valley grew into huge cities. These cities had paved streets and city sewers. By 1600 BC this great civilization had vanished. It lay unknown beneath piles of earth until 1921, when archaeologists found the remains of one of its cities. Who were the people of this civilization? What happened to them?
Lost Cities of the Indus
The ruins of the city discovered by ______in 1921 is called Harappa, after the name of a nearby town. Archaeologists don’t know what the ancient people who lived in the city called themselves. Today, the entire Indus Valley civilization is called ______civilization. This civilization lasted for ______years.
A year later Harappa was uncovered, archaeologists found a second ruined city. This city, about ______miles to the ______, was called Mohenjo-Daro, which means “mound of death” in ______, an ancient Indian language.
Mohenjo-Daro
Mohenjo-Daro was a large city. Historians think ______people may have lived there. Streets crossed each other at right angles. Large avenues were paved with earthen ______. Side streets were narrower and most of them were left unpaved.
Hundreds of one-room, brick ______line the streets. Some apartment buildings were several stories high and had ______and courtyards.
A ______, or strong fortress, stood at the west end of Mohenjo-Daro. This citadel was surrounded by thick walls to protect it against ______and ______. Beside the citadel stood a large grain storehouse, where the farmers of Mohenjo-Daro stored crops of barley and wheat. Also nearby was a pool-sized ______, which may have been used for religious ceremonies.
Harappan Culture
Archaeologists have studied the ruins of the Indus civilization, but they have had trouble learning how the Harappans lived. Scholars cannot ______the symbols on Harappan artifacts yet. However, they have been able to make some ______about life in the Indus Valley. Many conclusions are based on the remains found in Mohenjo-Daro.
Planned Cities
One of the most remarkable things about the ancient Indus Valley cities is their precise ______. Harappan bricklayers used standard-sized bricks, unlike the irregular-sized bricks used in Mesopotamia. Harappans also pioneered ways to keep their city ______. Many houses had their own toilets, and the city had a sewer system complete with “manholes.”
Projects like this need central planning by a strong ______. Since the city of Harappa had almost the same layout as Mohnejo-Daro – even though the two were 400 miles apart – historians conclude that the Indus civilization must have had a strong central government.
Specialized Skills
The ancient Harappans were skilled ______and ______. Archaeolotists have uncovered ______in the ruins of the workshops that lined city streets. Jewelers made elegant jewelry with gold, conch shells, and gems. Skilled workers carved beautiful pictures into small squares of stone. These stone squares were probably used as seals to mark possessions. Potters decorated bowls, water jars and other pottery containers with colorful paintings. Metalworkers used copper to make fish hooks and ______. They also made elegant bronze statues. Weavers in the Indus River valley may have been the first to make cotton fibers into cloth.
As in Egypt and the Fertile Crescent, such specialization ______a surplus of food. Excess crops were collected and kept in large storehouses. Perhaps, as in ancient Egypt, government workers collected a part of farmers’ crops as a tax. This stored grain may have been redistributed later, as payment to city workers or government employees.
The Aryans
The cities of the Indus Valley were abandoned around 1600 BC What happened? There are several theories.
The decline may have been due to a ______or to a ______, such as a flood or lack of rainfall. A change in rainfall or lack of river water would have made farming very difficult.
Some archaeologists think that the Indus River changed course after a natural disaster such as an ______. An earthquake may have caused floods that destroyed the region’s large cities; or it may have caused the course of the Indus River to change. Life went on in the Indus Valley, but the Harappan civilization never recovered.
Around 1500 BC life in the Indus Valley changed again. A new group began crossing the icy passes of the ______mountains and moving east into the Indus Valley. These were Aryans, people from central Asia, who rode ______to herd cattle and sheep. Natural disasters or war may have caused them to migrate south through the mountains. To migrate means to move from one place to another to live. The Aryan people migrated west into Europe and south into India.
______means “noble one” in Sanskrit. The Aryans brought the Sanskrit language to the Indus Valley and the rest of the subcontinent. They also brought new religious ideas.
Putting it together
Harappan civilization was completely forgotten until scientists uncovered it in the 1920s. Even today, ______is known about this civilization. However, the planning of these cities led historians to conclude that Harappan civilization had a ______central government and economy.
The Indus Valley civilization collapsed suddenly around 1600 BC. About 100 years after the collapse, groups of herders called Aryans began to settle the Indus Valley. In time, their culture ______with that of the people of the Indus River valley to create a new culture.