Ancient Civilizations: The Indus Valley

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Ancient Civilizations The Indus Valley

• Indus River Valley Geographic and Climate
  Setting
• Indus River Valley Mountain Pathways and
  Barriers
• Mohenjo-Daro The First Planned City?
• Indus River Valley Harappa A Conquered People

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Indus River Valley Geographic Setting

• The Indus River Valley civilization first
  appeared in 2,500 B.C.
• It was located in the western part of India
• India is actually a subcontinent a large land
  mass that extends out from a continent (Asia)
• Himalayan and the Hindu Kush Mountains to an
  extent isolate India from Asia

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Indus River Valley Climate

• Climate is dominated by monsoons, are heavy rains
  accompanied by strong winds
• Monsoons appear during winter from northeast
  region and summer monsoons are powered by the
  Indian Ocean
• Summer monsoons provide life giving rains but if
  weak or late they can weaken the harvest
• If the summer monsoon bring exceedingly heavy
  rains rivers will cause massive floods that can
  devastate villages on river fronts

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Indus River Valley Mountain Pathways and Barriers

• Passes of Hindu Kush mountains allowed invading
  armies to reach India
• The Indus River begins in the mountains and is a
  product of the mountain snow melting
• Indus eventually flows onto the floodplains of
  India and makes large scale faring possible
• Floodplains area around a river that becomes
  flooded when the water levels of the river rise

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Indus River Valley Mountain Pathways and Barriers

• Rich soil in valley provided farmers with a
  surplus of wheat and grain
• Surplus food allowed civilization to flourish and
  grow (villages became cities)
• Population grew as well because of food surpluses

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Mohenjo-Daro The First Planned City?

• 2,500-1,300 B.C. Indus River Valley had planned
  cities
• Mohenjo-Daro was built on a plateau to deal with
  unpredictable river flooding
• To allow easy movement city streets were divided
  into squares
• Houses and shops were built within these squares

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Mohenjo-Daro The First Planned City?

• To protect its citizens a citadel, a fortress,
  was built in the center of the city
• Mohenjo-Daro had a heated religious pool, storage
  facilities for crops, two story buildings made of
  mud bricks, defensive towers and a sewer system
• Had a written language which used pictographs
  sign that expresses a thought or idea

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Harappa A Merchant City

• Harappa, 3,000-1,300 B.C. was a city built on
  local and international trade
• City trade went as far as Mesopotamia, Persia and
  southern India
• Traded intensively in gold, ivory, spices, cloth
  and copper
• Harappans domesticated animals and grew crops
• First to grow cotton and produce cloth

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Indus River Valley A Conquered People

• Aryans warrior nomads, migrated into the Indus
  valley around 2,000 B.C.
• Introduced a caste system that ranked people in
  society
• Aryans were able to conquer the Indus Valley due
  to natural disasters in form the of famines,
  devastating floods and over usage of topsoil
• These events allowed the Aryans to sweep across
  the valley region

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