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History at Key Stage 2

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?

1500

1000

500

0500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

4000

BC AD

1666: The Great Fire of London

55 BC - 400 AD: Roman Britain

3500

2000

790-1060s:

The Viking Age

3100 BC – 1069 BC: Ancient Egypt

When was the Indus Valley civilisation?

Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?

1000 BC – 323 BC: Ancient Greece

2500-1500 BC: Indus

Valley

History

Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?

Where was the Indus Valley civilisation?

Unit 16: How can we find out about 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

IndiaPakistan

The Indus river

Harappa

Mohenjo-Daro

The area where the IndusValley civilisation was is shown in bright green

History

Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?

What was the environment like in the Indus Valley?

Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?

Sea

Hills

Mountains

Desert

River

Why do you think people would want to settle in the Indus valley?

How do you think the environmental features would affect the lives of people living here?

History

Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?

How was the Indus Valley civilisation discovered?

In 1920-1921 the first evidenceof the Indus Valley civilisationwas discovered.

It was a set of engraved sealsfound 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?

Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?

Drains

Housesbuilt in straight

lines

Straight streets

between houses

Clay bricks

baked in the sun

City gate

History

Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?

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:

Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?

The size and shape of the artefact

How the artefact is decorated

The colour of the artefact

What you think it might have been used for

Reasons why you think it was used for this purpose

History

Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?

What sort of written evidence is there of the Indus Valley civilisation?

Unit 16: How can we find out about 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?

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:

Unit 16: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?

Fish Star

The Indus Valley people believed that the stars were like fish swimming in the night sky.

Why do you think the fish

ideogram might have the

meaning ‘star’?

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