Working in small groups – identify what your items are

What do you think they are used for? What are the clues that led you to your opinion?

DO NOW…

DISCUSS…WHAT QUESTIONS WOULD YOU ASK AN

ARCHEOLOGIST?

Questions?????

No one says “We are living at the pinnacle of the United States” – Because we don’t know

What to consider with a civilization? Why did it Start? How do we structure our lives? What motivates you and the way you act? Mesopotamia, Romans, Greeks, etc all have

SOMETHING left to tell us about their civilizationWhat if a Civilization leaves little clues?

DISCUSS…WHAT QUESTIONS WOULD YOU ASK AN

ARCHEOLOGIST?

EARLY INDIA:INDIA IS THE

REASON WE STUDY HISTORY!!!!!

WHAT DO WE KNOW? – HARAPPA 1920

ARIEL VIEW OF MOHENJO – DARO – WHAT CAN YOU TELL ABOUT THIS

CIVILIZATION ?

EXCAVATING MOHENJO-DARO

Use the image to point out what was missing in the drawing you had to complete

Explain to your classmates what you think this structure/item was used for

Classmates should take notes on your findings Other students may share additional ideas after you

are finished presenting

Now lets find out what these items were used for……..

WHAT DID YOU FIND?

Which of the artifacts most interested you? Most surprised you?

What can the artifacts tell us about daily life in Mohenjodaro?

What questions do you still have about life in ancient India?

REVIEW FROM LAST CLASS

CitadelOf

Mohenjo-Daro

COVERS 1.5 KILOMETERS 35,000 PEOPLE LIVED THERE

Built Multi Story Homes Used bricks Arranged like a City (grid)Leads people to believe they must have had a

government Cities are arranged with wind in mind (Air

Conditioning) Used gravity to make drains = Plumbing

CITY LIFE IN INDUS VALLEY

STREET AND HOUSE

WELLS

DRAINS

To the north is a citadel or raised area.

In Mohenjo-Daro, the citadel is built on an architectural platform about 45 feet above the plain.

On the summit was a huge communal bath.

Next to the large bath was a huge open space—a granary where food was stored from possible floods.

Fortified walls mark the southeast corner.

THE GREAT BATH– CENTER OF CIVILIZATION – WHAT DOES THIS

TELL YOU?

Male Skeleton, Harappa

CLOSE UP OF MALE SKELETON

Female Skeleton with Child, Harappa

SKELETAL REMAINS:

When excavations of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro reached the street level, they discovered skeletons scattered about the cities, many holding hands and sprawling in the streets as if some instant, horrible doom had taken place. People were just lying, unburied, in the streets of the city.

NUCLEAR RADIATION?

At one site, Soviet scholars found a skeleton which had a radioactive level 50 times greater than normal.

These skeletons are among the most radioactive ever found, on par with those at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

ATOMIC BOMB DESTROYS CITY 4,000 YEARS AGO?

There was an epicenter about 50 yards wide where everything was crystallized, fused or melted, he said.

Sixty yards from the center the bricks are melted on one side indicating a blast. the horrible, mysterious event of 4,000 years ago that leveled Mohenjo Daro was recorded in an old Hindu manuscript called the Mahabharata, which has been guarded by holy men for centuries:

“White hot smoke that was a thousand times brighter than the sun rose in infinite brilliance and reduced the city to ashes, the account reads. Water boiled...horses and war chariots were burned by the thousands.. . the corpses of the fallen were mutilated by the terrible heat so that they no longer looked like human beings...”

The description concludes:

“…it was a terrible sight to see ... never before have we seen such a ghastly weapon. “

Approximately 1500 B.C.E. a nomadic and pastoral people who spoke the Indo-European language passed through the Hindu Kush mountains.

They called themselves “Aryans” or “noble people. ”

They established small herding and agricultural communities throughout northern India.

Their migrations took place over several centuries.

Intermarried and laid social and cultural foundations that infl uenced Indian society to present day

ENTER THE ARYANS

Hymns and Poems

Religious Prayers Magic Spells Gods and

Goddesses

VERDIC AGE

What do the Mouth, Arms, Thighs, and Feet Represent?

Sudras(Non-Aryan)

Farm Workers, Servants, Laborers

VaishyasHerders, Farmers,

Artisans, Merchants

KshatriyasWarriors

BrahminsPriests

Dalits (Outside the Caste System) Did work others did not want