Social Studies Notes (Thursday October 12th) - Harappan Life and Culture

• Harappan Culture:

• A mysterious form of writing covered the stone seals that people found in the ruined cities
• Some of those seals may have indicated types of trade goods
• Some scholars think that the 500 pictographs (or picture signs) of Harappan writing may stand for words, sounds, or both - but they don’t really know
• No-one has figured out how to read the writing of Harappan civilization
• Until someone learns to read it, the only way we can learn about the civilization is by studying artifacts

• Harappan Religion:

• Archaeologists have not identified the site of any temples for specific Gods, but they have found evidence of Religion
• Mohenjo-Daro had a huge public bath that may have been used for Religious rituals (many Religions have rituals linked to cleansing. For example, Christian baptism stands for the act of washing away sin)
• Archaeologists have found figures of animals, such as bulls, that Indians still regard as holy
• They also found clay figurines that may be Goddesses or simply dolls

• A Widespread and Prosperous Culture:

• People across a wide region shared Harappan culture
• Harappan cities spread across an area that was about 500,000 square miles in size (that region was almost twice as big as Texas is today)
• These cities shared a common design
• Those shared designs show how widely the culture had spread
• Harappan people used standard weights and measures
• Across the region, they made similar bronze statues and clay toys
• These artifacts show that the Harappans had wealth
• They gained this wealth from agriculture and trade
• Archaeologists have found seals from the Indus Valley as far away as Mesopotamia
• Indians traded timber, ivory and beads
• Mesopotamians sold the Indians silver, tin, and woolen cloth

• Challenges to Harappan Life:

• Around 2000 to 1500 B.C, earthquakes shook the region
• These quakes probably caused the Saraswati River to dry up
• The same natural disaster may have caused the Indus River to flood
• These problems forced people to leave their cities
• This caused the Harappan civilization to decline
• Soon after, another group of people took the place of Harappan civilization

Lesson Summary:

1. The rivers of India and the seasonal monsoons helped make agriculture possible.
2. Agricultural wealth led to the rise of a complex civilization in the Indus Valley.
3. The prosperous Harappan culture lasted for about 800 years.

Big ideas about Ancient India:

• Many societies rely on family roles and social roles to keep order
• Indians saw themselves as belonging to one of four social classes called Castes
• These broad classes were divided into many smaller groups based on jobs
• In time, a fifth group of  people called the untouchables came to be considered the lowest group in society

Why it matters now:

Ancient Indians developed products that are still important today. They were the first people to domesticate chickens and the first Asians to produce cotton cloth.