Social Studies – Ancient India Everyone, please empty your hanging folder & take out your notebook. Wednesday,

The Handout Students, we did a map and reading activity. The handout was called “India – p.1” if you lost it, you can find it on my web page. After looking at the handout and finding key features on the map and coloring them in, we looked at the following slides.

Geography of India India is a subcontinent. – Subcontinent: a large landmass that is part of a continent but is separated from it in some way

Geography of India, continued The countries today that occupy the same space as the land of the Indus River Valley civilizations are… Pakistan Afghanistan – and India

Weather and Climate Summers hot; winters cold Six seasons: spring, summer, rainy, autumn, winter, and dewy! April – Oct = MONSOON season! – Can rain for weeks – Includes wind Nov – March = DROUGHT season! – Temps can reach 115+! – Earth becomes dry and cracked – Dry air comes in from NE

Weather and Climate Wet seasons provided enough fertile soil to let the people of the Indus River Valley grow enough crops to last them all year long. Crops included… – Wheat, barley, and rice!

Mountains Why mountains? – India’s landmass crashed against Asia Pushed some of Earth’s crust up… now called the Himalayas Mountains were important because: – Separated India from China – Was a source of major rivers – Protected India from invasion – Provided water, hunting, timber, minerals, and semi- precious stones

Rivers There were two rivers of great significance: – Indus River – Ganges River (below) Also a river called the Ghaggar-Hakra

Rivers, continued Rivers were important to the development of two cities: – Harappa (50,000) – Mohenjo-daro (30,000) Why were rivers so helpful? – Floodwaters created silt, which was great for growing – Trade routes