Transcript Slide 1

Unit 16: How can we find out about the
Indus Valley civilisation?
History
Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?
When was the Indus Valley civilisation?
BC AD
0
2500-1500 BC:
Indus Valley
3100 BC – 1069 BC:
Ancient Egypt
1000 BC –
323 BC:
Ancient
Greece
7901060s:
The Viking
Age
55 BC 400 AD:
Roman
Britain
Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?
1666: The
Great Fire
of London
History
Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?
Where was the Indus Valley civilisation?
The Indus valley was in Asia, in parts of what are now India,
Pakistan and Afghanistan. Click to have a closer look:
Afghanistan
The area where the Indus
Valley civilisation was is
shown in bright green
The Indus river
Harappa
Pakistan
Mohenjo-Daro
India
Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?
Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?
History
What was the environment like in the Indus Valley?
Why do you think
people would want to
settle in the Indus
valley?
Mountains
Hills
River
How do you think the
environmental
features would affect
the lives of people
living here?
Desert
Sea
Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?
Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?
History
How was the Indus Valley civilisation discovered?
In 1920-1921 the first evidence
of the Indus Valley civilisation
was discovered.
It was a set of engraved seals
found near the town of Harappa,
like the ones shown in the picture
Following this discovery, a team
of archaeologists including
Rakhal Das Banerjee, John Marshall, E.J.H Mackay and M.S.Vats
excavated the area and found the remains of buildings and streets.
It soon became clear that what they had found was evidence of an
ancient civilisation.
Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?
History
Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?
What do streets and buildings tell us about life in Mohenjo-Daro?
Straight
streets
between
houses
Clay
bricks
baked in
the sun
Houses
built in
straight
lines
Drains
City gate
Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?
Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?
History
What do pictures of artefacts tell us about life in Mohenjo-Daro?
Choose a picture of an artefact and write a description of it.
In your description you may want to mention:
The size and shape of the artefact
The colour of the artefact
How the artefact is decorated
What you think it might have been used for
Reasons why you think it was used for this purpose
Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?
Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?
History
What sort of written evidence is there of the Indus Valley civilisation?
The Indus Valley civilisation’s system of writing was based on
pictures, called ideograms.
Each ideogram could have several different meanings.
Can you think of examples of how we use pictures or ideograms
to communicate nowadays?
Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?
History
Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?
How can the fish ideogram be interpreted?
The fish ideogram could have two meanings:
Star
Fish
Why do you
think the fish
ideogram might
have the
meaning ‘star’?
The Indus Valley people believed that the stars were
like fish swimming in the night sky.
Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?