By: Olha Lee Janette Hernandez The Indus Valley Civilization By: Olha Lee Janette Hernandez 2600-1500 BCE

Geography Location: Western part of the Indian Sub continent Geographic impact: The Indus River helped spark a trade, farming, and transportation. The Indus Valley Civilization was not isolated because there were many other little communities all around them that they traded with.

Time Period Most historian believe the Indus Civilization was around 2600-1500 BCE but there are still disagreements about this topic. Peaked: 2400 BCE Decline: 1500BCE

Economy Indus Valley Civilization based their economy on hunting, trading, farming and fishing The merchants of the social class handled trade, they were called Vaishayas. Materials traded: Gold from South India Copper from Afghanistan Turquoise from Iran

Government It is believed the Indus Valley Civilization didn’t have an emperor or king figure because there hasn’t been any type of a capitol building or place where they would meet. There hasn’t been a discovery that this civilization had laws, but historians believe that each social class had their own job to do. anarchyinabottle.blogspot.com

Beliefs They were polytheistic The seals that they made showed that they worshiped other things like, the unicorn, elephant, bull They treated the women like the head of the household Indra, the war god, was one of the main gods that was worshiped

Technology Built building out of burned brick Sewage system Wells Food storage system Pool

Writing They had a form of writing using symbols but historians haven't been able to translate 400 characters (Too many symbols for it to represent letters and not enough for every symbol to represent a picture) Unicorn and the bull were the most common symbol, the bull symbolizes strength

Architecture They planned their cities out like Harappa & Montenegro Sewer systems Measurements were precise Houses were 1-2 stories high Flat roofs

Slavery Most historians believe that there was slavery but not enough evidence is available to be 100% sure about it

Rise and Fall The fall of the Indus Valley Civilizations hasn’t been determined how it occurred yet. It is uncertain if it was because of a climate change like a drought, monsoon, flood, or the Aryan invasion.

Contributions The Indus Valley Civilization invented beads and put them on a necklace. They also were the first to grow cotton.

Golden Age 2400 BC would be considered the golden age for the Indus people; everything was going well for them including crops, hunting, fishing, trading

Social Classes Most of the time the women were the head of the household They had about 4 different social classes: Brahmins (Priest) Kshatriyas (warriors) Vaishayas (cultivators, merchants) Shudras (peasants, workers) The higher class wore a bull on their seal

Agriculture They domesticated cotton, sesame, peas, and barley The Indus people didn’t practice canal irrigation

Firsts They were one of the first to grow and domesticate cotton Also they were one of the first to start using beads to make jewlery

Citations: http://www.ancientindia.co.uk/indus/home_set.html http://www.crystalinks.com/induscivilization.html http://www.rivervalleycivilizations.com/indus.php http://india.mrdonn.org/indus.html http://www.halfmantr.com/display-polity/113-indus-valley-civilization?start=1 http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/F1-IndusCivilization/indus.htm anarchyinabottle.blogspot.com