Text 1.2: The Forgotten Indus CivilizationTopic 3: Ancient India and China (2600 B.C.E. - A.D. 550)

Lesson 1: Early Civilization in South Asia

BELLWORK

What features of the Indus civilization have we seen in other ancient civilizations?

OBJECTIVES

Identify the artifacts and architecture of the ancient Indus people

Discuss the culture of the ancient Indus people

Explain the reasons for the fall of the Indus culture

The Forgotten Indus Civilization

The first civilization in South Asia is cloaked in

mystery

It emerged in the valleys of the Indus River and

the now dried up Saraswati River in present-day

Pakistan and India

Although it originated earlier, Indus Valley

civilization flourished from about 2500 B.C.E. to

about 1800 B.C.E.

The Forgotten Indus Civilization

It was rediscovered in the 1920s and

archaeologists have not fully uncovered many

Indus Valley sites

The Indus Valley civilization covered the largest

area of any civilization until the rise of Persia

more than 1,000 years later

We know, too, that its great cities were as

impressive as those of Sumer

Well-Planned Cities

Archaeologists have discovered more than 1,000

settlements along the Indus River and the dry bed

of the Saraswati

At least eight of the settlements are larger cities

that archaeologists believe may have been

prominent during the course of the civilization's

history

Well-Planned Cities

Since their discovery in the 1920s, the Indus

cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro have been

considered possible twin capitals of the

civilization, or cities that ruled the area one after

the other

Why?

Both were large, some three miles in

circumference

Each was dominated by a massive hilltop

structure whose exact purpose is unknown

Both cities had huge warehouses to store grain,

telling us that farmers produced enough surplus

food to support thousands of city dwellers

Why continued...

Both were carefully planned

Mohenjo-Daro was laid out in a grid pattern, with

long, wide main streets and large rectangular

blocks

Houses were mostly built with baked clay bricks

of a standard size

Structures of the Cities

Indus houses had complex plumbing systems,

with baths, drains, and water chutes that led into

sewers beneath the streets

Merchants in the marketplace used a uniform

system of weights and measures

Archaeologists have concluded that Indus Valley

cities were planned by a well-organized

government

Structures of the Cities

The rigid pattern of building and uniform brick

sizes suggest government planners at work

These experts must have been skilled in

mathematics and surveying to lay out the cities so

precisely

Farming and Trade

Most Indus Valley people were farmers

They grew a wide variety of crops, including

wheat, barley, melons, and dates

They also may have been the first people to

cultivate cotton and weave its fibers into cloth

Farming and Trade

Some people were merchants and traders

Their ships carried cargoes of cotton cloth, grain,

copper, pearls, and ivory combs to distant lands

By hugging the coast of the Arabian Sea and

sailing up the Persian Gulf, Indus vessels reached

the cities of Sumer

Writing

Contact with Sumer may have prompted the

people of the Indus Valley to develop their own

system of writing

Indus script bears no resemblance to Sumerian

cuneiform

Religious Beliefs

From clues such as statues and images on small clay seals, archaeologists have speculated about the religious beliefs of the Indus people

Like other ancient peoples, they appear to be polytheistic

A mother goddess, the source of creation, seems to have been widely honored, along with a male god

Religious Beliefs

Indus people also seem to have viewed certain

animals as sacred, including the buffalo and the

bull

Some scholars think these early practices

influenced later Hindu beliefs, especially the

veneration of, or special regard, for cattle

Decline and Disappearance

By about 1750 B.C.E. the quality of life in the

Indus Valley was declining with cities no longer

keeping up the old standards and crude pottery

replaced the finer works of earlier days

Mohenjo-Daro was abandoned, the populations

of the other cities and towns dwindled

People continued to live in the Indus Valley but

the Indus civilization fell apart and eventually

disappeared

Decline and Disappearance

Scholars do not know exactly why Indus

civilization collapsed. Theories include:

Invaders attacked and overran the cities (original)

Environmental factors undermined Indus

civilization with the lower Indus became subject

to severe flooding, which destroyed towns and

cities

Devastating earthquake or intense drought