SN ACTIVITY INDUS VALLEY
1 FOOD - Grows many types of crops
- Same as in Mesopotamia & Egypt
- Wheat, Barley & Rice
- Cattle provided meat & milk
- People near river ate fish, molluscs & turtle
- Those near forest hunted wild boar
- Peas, sesame, mustard, melons, & dates
- Dinner: wheat bread with rice or barley
2 GOVERNMENT - Governed by a priest-king who headed a strong central
government.
- Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa built several kilometres apart
with similar layouts:
- Well-constructed, well-laid out and well-built houses,
good sanitation systems, and public baths.
- Building codes were strict and the workforce was large,
efficient, and highly organized.
- Area ruled by a strong central government that imposed
standards on the population.
- Organized distribution network set up by an efficient
administration of towns and cities to *feed the large
workforce.
- Similar urban planning evident throughout the Indus
Valley towns and cities is an indication of a strong central
CHINA
- Basic food was millet, a kind of cereal.
- Barley and wheat were also grown and eaten.
- The peasants grew beans and many other
vegetables i
- They ate fish from the rivers and hunted
animals such as deer and bears.
- They used onions and garlic to flavour their
food.
- Domesticated pigs, dogs, goats, sheep, water
buffalo, and some fowl similar to chickens.
- Experienced famine with frequent drought or
flooding, it was sometimes impossible to
produce food.
- Some foods in drought, include kinds of insects
- Used chopsticks for eating and for cooking.
- They usually boiled, steamed, or stir-fried their
food.
- Tea is a drink often associated with China. –
- Territory of the Shang ruled by a king.
- All decisions were made by him.
- He was believed to rule by the “mandate of
Heaven,” or divine right, because he was a
descendant of the supreme god, Shang Ti.
- This ancestor, along with the sun and the moon,
guided all of the king’s decisions.
- The king had great power, but he had to be
responsible. If he was an irresponsible ruler, the
gods would disapprove, and the nobles would
withdraw their support.
- The king made decisions by casting oracle
bones.
- He would write a question on a piece of ox bone
or tortoise shell. A bronze pointer was heated
 government.
- Indus Valley people were highly disciplined and took their
civic duties seriously.
- People kept their cities clean and cooperated with one
another.
- Builders followed strict building codes when planning the
cities and rebuilding damaged areas such as docks,
warehouses, walls, and platforms.
- Officials used the Indus River to stay connected to people
who lived along it. In this way, they were able to maintain
a well-organized and efficient administration and
economy over an area twice the size of Mesopotamia.
3 FARMING - Mixed farming
- Irrigated field
- Grain Put in Central Storage Building
- Learnt to cultivate cotton before Chinese.
- Cotton was first grown here.
- Water buffalo, pigs, dogs, cats, and sheep domesticated
and used as working animals.
- Cattle used as plough animals.
- 2 kinds of cattle: a) Zebu & b) horned humpless
- Cattle dung used for fertilizer and fuel.
- Horses and camels used for transportation.
- Elephants as working animals
4 CLOTHING - Wore bright colorful robes.
- Women wore lipstick and jewellery made with gold,
precious’
and placed on the bone where the question was
written. The bone usually cracked from the
heat. The king could read the crack in four
different ways: yes, no, lucky, or unlucky.
- Peasant farmers grew food for all members of
society.
- Most did not own the land they worked but
rented it from noble families.
- In times of war, peasant farmers became
soldiers for the king. In times of peace, they had
to work on the great buildings of the kingdom.
- Farming and construction were both difficult to
do with very basic tools. within the foundation
of a building as it was being laid.
- People made clothing from animal skins
- Silk production, or sericulture, became an
important art and industry.
- Most men wore long, belted tunics with a jacket
over top.
- The types of fabrics and the amount of
decoration on the fabric indicated the social
rank of the wearer.
- Women wore plain jackets and belted skirts
over simple tunic dresses.
 - Silk took a long time to make and was expensive
to produce.
- Trousers were not worn until later during the
Shang dynasty. h
- Peasant dress was made with the rougher fibres
from plants such as hemp and banana leaf.
- Because of its warmth, wool was used as
padding in outerwear and was woven into thick
fabrics.
- Men wore simple hats or kerchiefs on their
heads until elaborate hairstyles became
popular.
- Men often wore their hair in a heavy roll, with a
short pigtail hanging down the back.
- Women’s hairstyles were also elaborate. Hair
was held in place with jade, bone, and ivory
combs or hairpins.
- Women also wore necklaces and pendants
made from jade and bone. Pendants were often
shaped like birds
5 ARTS - Very little art of the Indus Valley civilization has been
recovered.
- Two statues, one portraying a priest-king and the other a
native dancing girl are the most famous of the Indus
Valley artworks.
- The Indus Valley people produced good-quality pottery,
decorated with animal, bird, and plant images.
- Artisans produced metal ornaments and tools and
ceramic toys.
- Archaeologists have found bowls made of bronze and
silver and many beads.
- Fired steatite beads found at Harappa that date to c. 2600
BCE-2200 BCE.
- The beads are in many of the ornaments that people
 wore as jewellery.
- Many beautifully carved stone seals found with detailed
figures of animals and gods.
- The inscriptions are the names of the owners of the seals.
- These are best examples of the Indus Valley written
language
- Artistic flair of Indus Valley people can be seen in the
seals
- Seals made of terra cotta with writing and an animal on
them (see above).
- Some seals used to close jars filled with a trade good such
as oil.
- Other seals contain the text of important myths.
- The Indus Valley people appreciative of arts such as
dancing, music, and painting.
- Bronze, terra cotta, and stone sculptures show figures in
dancing poses.
- Harplike instruments found on an Indus Valley seal and
on shell objects.
- Artisans also developed a new style of painting that
showed animal figures in their natural environments
7 HOUSING - Houses built along the city’s main streets - Anyang was a religious, government, and
- Did not open onto the roads. industrial centre
- People entered their homes through back doors - The main buildings appear to have been large
accessible from narrow lanes running between the palaces and temples.
streets. - Packed earth was used for the foundations of
- Houses varied in size from small two-room buildings to the buildings.
large mansions. - On top of the foundations, wooden pillars were
- The different house sizes suggest differences in wealth used to support the walls.
and/or different social classes in the society. - The walls were made of twigs, plastered with
- Most homes made from standard-sized mud bricks and clay.
baked bricks. - Roofs were probably thatched.
- Homes, wells, building platforms, and drains built with - Most buildings were built around a central
baked bricks, although rarely used in this area of the courtyard.
 world - In addition to the government section of the
- The ceilings in homes were high to keep the rooms cool. city, a large area was set aside for industry.
- The floors made from hard-packed earth covered with - Most merchants and craftspeople lived outside
plaster or with clean sand. the capital city of Anyang in mud huts.
- Doorways and windows had wooden or mat shutters. - In winter, farmers lived in small villages near the
- Houses were two- storeys high with flat roofs, built city.
around a central courtyard. - Farmers’ homes were simple one-room huts
- All windows in the house overlooked the courtyard. with dirt floors, mud walls, and thatched roofs.
- Furniture was simple. People slept on reed mats and sat - In summer, the farmers moved to their fields,
on low wooden stools. where they lived in bamboo huts.
- They stored their food in pottery containers painted in
red and black designs.
- Statues of gods and goddesses were placed
in alcoves built into the house walls.
- Cleanliness was very important.
- All houses had indoor bathrooms with brick floors.
- Brick drains in the bathroom connected to covered drains
along the streets. Drains, which had openings to allow for
inspection and cleaning.
- No other society in the world at that time took such care
to keep its cities clean.
WRITING Pictographs
TRADE - Active traders.
- Imported copper, turquoise, and gold from, Iran, and
southern India
- Traded with huntergatherers.
- Cotton exported.
- Trading networks connected various regions
- Traders and merchants used standardized weights and
measures in their busine66ss transactions.
- The smallest weights used to measure gold or spices or
for taxing goods coming into and going out of the cities.
- Larger weights hoisted with ropes. Used to measuring
grain.
 - Cattle, food, cotton, lumber, and grains were the most
common goods traded.5
- Traders travelled in caravans and by sea in long, flat-
bottomed boats.
- Heavy monsoon rains made travel by land difficult in the
early spring.
- By sea, monsoon winds from the northeast in May and
June aided travel to the Persian Gulf and areas around
the Red Sea.
- Southeast winds in August made return trips easy.
- At other times of the year, trade ships sailed close to the
coastlines.
- A large dock excavated at the port city of Lothal on the
Arabian Sea.
- From Lothal, goods were transported by boat to Bahrain,
an island in the Persian Gulf.
- The people of Bahrain relayed these trade goods to
Mesopotamia.
- A number of objects from the Indus Valley, such as seals,
have been found buried with objects from Mesopotamia.
RELIGION - Had many gods and goddesses. - Most people believed in a spirit world.
- Statues of goddesses with elaborate headdresses and - They worshipped many deities and believed in
jewellery. an afterlife.
- They were probably worshipped as symbols of fertility. - The most important god was Tien, the god of
- Carvings on some seals show three-faced god wearing a heaven.
large headdress with horns and surrounded by animals. - The people practiced ancestor worship.
- Tiger, elephant, rhinoceros, and buffalo, also appear on - They believed in filial piety; younger family
other seals. members were respectful of elder members of
- The three-faced god a model for the later Hindu god the family and the community.
Shiva, who was Lord of Beasts. - The common people did not share the religion
- The animals that appeared with Shiva, and the horned of the nobility. Instead, they worshipped various
bull that is represented by the horns worn by the god, gods whom they believed controlled the earth
were probably also worshipped. and the crops.
- Other images that often appear on seals include unicorns, - People consulted sorcerers (also known as a
 elephants, and bulls. wu) who were either men or women.
- When people died they were buried in wooden coffins,
surrounded by pottery.
- This suggests that people believed in an afterlife.
- Ornaments such as beads and bangles adorned both
male and female bodies.
- Jewellery made from gold, silver, and precious stones that
people wore were passed down from generation to
generation as inheritances

- The head of all society was the king, who was also the religious leader
- Sometimes they were used as human sacrifices and were buried in a king’s tomb, much as slaves were buried in the tombs of Aztec or
Mesopotamia rulers.

The labourers were also sometimes sacrificed and buried within the foundation of a building as it was being laid.