Indus River Valley Notes #17
Due for a stamp: Ch.2 Reading guide ?’s 16-20
HW-Reading: Hinduism
Indus
River
Valley
Civilization
• Who?
– Indus River
People
• Where?
– Indus River
Valley
•
• What?
– Started a
civilization
• When?
– About 2500 BC
Why
– Rich soil and water provieded by the
Indus River
Largest cities: Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
(population = 30,000)
The wellplanned
cities
had:
•
•
•
•
N-S, E-W grid for streets
Drainage system, gutters
“garbage disposal”
Standardized building
materials (bricks)
• Publics storehouses for
grain
What
happened?
• From about 1750-1500 BC,
historians think one or more
of the following happened:
– River changed course – no
more water or good soil
– Poor land management –
overgrazing, overfarming
– Earlier invasion by Aryans or
others.
Aryans
• Who?
– Nomadic
Herders from
the north
• Where?
– Indus River
Valley
• Why
– Food (especially
cattle)
• What?
– Invade
• When?
– About 1500 BC
Hinduism is a major development of the
blending of the beliefs of the beliefs of
Aryans and early Indus River people.
Indus River
Civilization
Leaders
No real leader like a Pharaohs or Hammurabi
Writing
Too hard to decipher There are about 400 symbols
Religion
Shiva is the main god There are links to modern
Hindu They worshiped the bull
Cities
They were building planned cities while Egypt was
building pyramids. They were the first to use oven
fired bricks. Cities were laid out in a grid.
Monsoon
Change in wind direction. Too much rain=flooding
Too little rain=drought Makes farming hard.
The end
Movement in tectonic plates moved rivers, caused
others to dry up and flattened cities.