Indus River Valley

Question 1

Region and Climate

Answer 1

• Northwest Southern Asia
• Based around the Indus River Valley
• Experienced seasonal monsoons

Question 2

Comparison to Other Cradles

Answer 2

• Origin and decline unclear
• Contemporary to Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China
• Larger area and influence than other cradles
• Relatively late archaeological work

Question 3

Agriculture

Answer 3

• Fully domesticated animals 7000 years before present
• No irrigation needed due to monsoons
• Cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, chickens, dairy production
• Wheat, barley, millet, peas, beans, fruit, melons, berries. Primary food staple was cereal grains
• Multicropping
• Crops could be grown in all seasons

Question 4

Charles Masson 1800s

Answer 4

• Discovered the first Indus Valley site and wrongfully attributed it to Alexander the Great
• Wrote a book about his findings

Question 5

Sir Alexander Cunningham 1875

Answer 5

• Did an archaeological survey of India
• Inspired by Masson’s writings
• Discovered the Indus Script

Question 6

John Marshall 1903

Answer 6

• Excavated Mohenjo-Daro
• Correctly thought it was part of its own large political society rather than a satellite city for Egypt
• Other archaeologists did not believe this because they thought there could not be another great society in the area

Question 7

Mortimer Wheeler

Answer 7

• Developed a chronology of the area via stratigraphy

Question 8

Pre-Harappan

Answer 8

• Initial small settlements in the neolithic period

Question 9

Early Harappan

Answer 9

• Trade established with Egypt, Mesopotamia, possibly China
• Population and infrastructure expanding

Question 10

Mature Harappan

Answer 10

• the pinnacle of cities and urbanization
• Water and land trade firmly established, extensive maritime trade with Mesopotamia
  Agriculture was fully developed
• Small cities which were able to develop due to surplus food

Question 11

Cities

Answer 11

• Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were the largest
• Infrastructural planning, waste management, water storage
• Divided into upper and lower districts
• Upper district in the West had the acropolis, high class residences, high intensity architecture and goods, public buildings, larger houses
• Lower district in the East had regular people, low intensity architecture and good, small homes

Question 12

Monumental Architecture

Answer 12

• Citadels, public baths, granaries
• Dams, lock gates, artificial lakes, fountains

Question 13

Hygiene

Answer 13

• Public baths
• Bathrooms and sewage systems
• “Flush” toilets which used water buckets

Question 14

Late Harappan

Answer 14

• Decline of the Indus Valley Civilization
• Likely due to drought, famine, loss of trade with Egypt, rise in disease, breakdowns of urban infrastructure
• Drying of the Ghaggar-Hakra river
• Decline of trade goods due to the Late Bronze Age Collapse

Question 15

Aryan Invasion Theory

Answer 15

• Mortimer Wheeler proposed that a race called the “Aryans” (later discovered to be a linguistic group of Indo-Europeans) conquered the Indus Valley
• This is where Hitler got the idea that Aryans are superior and his policies were justified
  Theory lost credibility in the 1960s
• Reality was probably just a gradual period of peaceful migrations

Question 16

Post Harappan

Answer 16

• Major cities abandoned
• People moved South

Question 17

Harappa

Answer 17

• 2600 BC
• 23500 people at its max
• 370 acres
• Damaged by British and French forces

Question 18

Mohenjo-Daro

Answer 18

• “Mound of the Dead”
• Largest Indus Valley city
• 40,000 people
• The Citadel
• Abandoned by 1700 BC

Question 19

Mohenjo-Daro Citadel

Answer 19

• 12m tall mud brick mound
• 5000 residences
• Assembly halls, public baths, great granary, great bath
• No wall, indicating that this was more of an economic capital than a political one because it would be under less threat of invasion

Question 20

Culture

Answer 20

• No evidence of central authority, rather they were probably organized into city-states
• May have been Theocratic
• No large military presence

Question 21

Indus Valley Script

Answer 21

• About 4000 items found so far
• Writings are short, and may not classify as a full writing system
• Still not understood because we do not know what language they spoke, so we cannot do comparative analysis with a similar language
• Small stamp seals
  From Early Harappan onward
• Logosyllabic and pictographic writings have been found

Question 22

Theories of collapse

Answer 22

• Climate change and a change to seasonal flooding
• Changes to Egyptian and Mesopotamian trade
• Rise in disease
  Breakdown of urban architecture
  Aryan invasion theory
• Probably a series of peaceful migrations