Essential Question:

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• Essential Question
• What were the important characteristics of the
  civilizationsin the Indus River Valley?
• Warm-Up Question
• Name 2 similarities between Egypt Mesopotamian
  civilizations
• Name 2 differences

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The Indus River Valley (India)
Class ActivityExamine the placards provided
generate 3 conclusions about the geography of
the Indus River Valley its impact on the
people of this region
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India began along the Indus River, which flooded
left behind fertile soil
Seasonal monsoons caused summer rains floods
The people were well protected on the Indian
subcontinent by the oceans, mountains,
deserts that surrounded the Indus River Valley
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What were the important characteristics of the
Indus River civilization?

• Working in groups, examine each of the 6
  placards examining the characteristics of
  civilization in the Indus River Valley
• For each placard, write hypotheses about
  government, cities, technology, etc. the
  confirm your theories by locating the matching
  answer key placard around the room

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Lasting Contributions

• Advanced cities
• Indus cities were laid out in a grid system with
  high walls citadel of major buildings

6
Lasting Contributions

• Specialized Workers
• Indian society was divided by the caste system
  which divided people based on their purity in
  Hinduism

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Lasting Contributions

• Government
• Little is known about Indus government other than
  they were ruled by kings

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Lasting Contributions

• Religion
• Believed in a polytheistic religion called
  Hinduism
• Hindus believe that ones soul is reborn until
  moksha is achieved (reincarnation)
• Moksha (enlightenment or nirvana) is the
  spiritual release from human form
• A souls karma (good or bad deeds) effect
  reincarnation

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Lasting Contributions

• Writing
• Indus writing has not been fully translated so
  much of Indus life is still a mystery
• Writing contained about 400 symbols that were
  both pictograms phonetic characters

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Lasting Contributions

• Technology
• Advanced plumbing Most houses had toilets
  private bathrooms connected to underground sewer
  systems
• Standard, oven-baked bricks