2nd+hour+2011-2012+Indus+Valley

Introduction- Josh M. & Alexis L.

The Indus Valley civilization began around 1300-3300 B.C. The Indus Valley is located where present day India, Iran, part of Pakistan and some of Afghanistan is. The harappans started off in a life of phase’s. the first phase was “The Early Harappans”, were they didn’t have much at all. Then from there they went to phase two, which is “The Mature Harappans”. In this phase the Harappans learned how to write an used seals on clay and other materials. The last phase was the “The Late Harappans”, In this phase by about 1700 B.C most of the cities were abandoned, this was caused because of the strong invasion of an Indo-European tribe. (Ellis and Elser, 1997)



Job Specialization - Alexis L. Most Indus valley people were farmers who grew a wide variety of crops, such as wheat, barley, melons, and dates. They were also the first people to cultivate cotton and weave its fibers into cloth for clothing and other accessories. Then when farming techniques became better, less people needed to farm, and more jobs were available. Some of the occupations besides farming were weaving, pottery, metal working, jewelry making, stone cutting, and trading. Others were merchants and traders, their ships contained cargoes of cotton cloth, grain, copper, and pearls. (Ellis and Elser, 1997)

Social Class – Alexis L. In the Indus valley region after the Aryans invaded the native people, they were divided into 4 social classes. The Brahmins also known as the priests. Then the Kshatriyas who were the warriors and the Vaisys who were the herders, farmers, artisans and merchants. The Sudra’s were the servants and basic laborers. In the start the warriors had the most respect and power, but soon the priests claimed that they alone could perform the ceremonies needed to please the gods. This gained major respect from the people. This system of dividing people into different classes is known as the caste’s systems which in you are born into and may not change. (Ellis and Elser, 1997)



Government- Mario S.

The government of the early Indus valley is shrouded in mystery. archeologists have unearthed some stone seals from the period, but they cannot give us good hard information on the valleys government. We know that Rajahs which were the rulers of the cities. They could also of had just one central government, but religion was also a major factor. The Indus priest were partially in charge of the government. They held the most respected position of there time and were a obvious choice for leadership. (Ellis and Elser, 1997)

Public works- Mario S.

In the ancient Indus Valley public works were critical to the peoples lives. Houses had modern plumbing systems, with baths, drains, and water chutes that led into sewers beneath the streets. The powerful leaders made sure the cities had a steady supply of grain from the villages. They had large warehouses were people went to obtain there food such as grains. (Ellis and Elser, 1997)

Written language- Josh M. Some archeologists called this period of time the mature Harappan. The archeologists called this the “mature Harappan” because this was the period were the Harappanians learned how to write. The first main corpus of writing was dated to the Indus civilization, it is in the form of about 2,000 inscribed seals, and the good thing was that the seals were in good legible conditions. Seals are like used for impressions in sand and or clay. Not many people have been able to find these seals and little progress has been made on being able to read or interpret them.

(Ellis and Elser, 1997)



Cities- Josh M.

In 1922 archeologists found remains of an ancient city called Harappa, also they found another city can Mohenjo –Daro. These two cities were the most popular city about 4,000 years ago. There were about 35,000 people in each. Indus valley was the first civilization to construct large cities. Approximately 1,052 cities and settlements belonged to Indus valley. Also Indus valley had the first existence of urban sanitation system in the whole world. The cities here in Indus valley were well planned with wide streets, private wells and a bath like platform.

(Ellis and Elser, 1997)



Art/ Architecture - Austin L

Ancient Indus valley art and architecture were very advanced for their time. Most of the structures in the valley were constructed of dense bricks like some buildings today. Most of the large structures in the Indus valley were within the two large cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. Both of the cities were laid out in a grid pattern with each house being uniform in size, layout, construction, and facilities. The cities were both about 3 miles in circumference and had large warehouses to store grain coming in from local farmers to be feed to the cities people. And in both the cities there were huge hilltop structures overlooking the metropolis below. These mega-buildings might have been a temple, but it was most likely a fortress to defend the city from attack. An average Indus valley house in a city would be constructed out of hard kiln-fired bricks and was a one story cubic structure. E.G.E. copyright 1997. Most Indus valley artwork was devoted to their gods. Gods like Shiva, the god of destruction, or Vishnu the god of preservation and so on their artwork was incredibly well-made and employed much intercut designs, colors, and materials. (Ellis and Elser, 1997)



RELIGION- Austin L.

There were 2 main religions in ancient India. Hinduism and Buddhism. Hinduism was the first big religion in India and included many gods and demi-gods. Hinduism differs from other religions in that there is no main king god or sacred texts. Every Hindu follower’s ultimate goal is Moksha, or union with Brahman, the universal spiritual force. Then in the tear 566 B.C. a man know as Gautama was born. When he was a young man he set out on a journey to find a land where death and suffering did not exist. In his quest he meditated under a tree for 48 days. When he rose he was Buddha. In Buddhism there are no gods, and the ultimate goal is nirvana. Or release from the endless cycle of death. Soon after turned 80 he died after consuming spoiled food. After his death Buddhism split into two schools and took root across Asia and soon Hinduism merged with Buddhism and the Hindus added Buddha to a growing list of Hindu gods. (Ellis and Elser, 1997)



Conclusion- Josh M.- Alexis L.

Close to the end of “The Late Harappans” 1750 BC the whole empire started to slowly fall apart. The scholars think that the natural resources that help everyday life decreased. Then there was a huge natural disaster either an earthquake or some sort of volcanic explosion in the Indus Valley. Then the Nomadic Aryans charged into the cities and began to overrule and overrun the whole empire and it collapsed in 1500 BC. Most traces of the Indus valley people were destroyed/ erased, things that we know today were passed down from the Aryan people. (Ellis and Elser, 1997)



Works Cited -

- Ellis and Esler, 1997, Prentice Hall: World History--Connections To Today - spangoli,F, 2009 Human rights, P.A.P - Unknown author Unknown year - Unknown author Unknown year - Sensing, M, 2011 world history, Athens Academy - Abbas, B, 2010 Indus mound of the dead, AbbasBlog - Kumar, D, 2009 Indus script, Web team design - Unknown author Unknown year - Unknown author Unknown year