1. Social Studies L. Nabulsi
Ancient India
Social Studies
L. Nabulsi

2. Vocabulary
Subcontinent
Indus River
Himalayas
Indus Plain

3. Timeline of Ancient India
6000 BC - Indus River Valley
People begin growing rice
2500 BC - Mohenjo-Daro
Makers of pottery
1900 BC – Khyber Pass
Aryans come to the Hindu Kush and control the Indus Valley (where did they come from)?
540s BC – Bodh-Gaya
Siddharta Gautama or Buddha teaches religious ideas

4. Read Aloud
“Boulder [ground] to silt by water….deep, round valleys, robed in cloud against the crag-carving sunlight on [mountain] peaks…
And centuries of cloud have melted, valleys have sweated froth-white cascades to draw the long, brown line down to the sea” (Banks 130).
This is how Pakistani poet Salmon Tarik Kureshi describes the Indus River

5. The Big Picture Begins in snow-covered mountains of South Asia
Flows through Pakistan, India and China
Joined by other rivers
Flows south
Brown in color due to silt
Giver of life
Enables fertile farming areas since BC

6. A Great River Is Born
Begins as an icy stream in the Himalayas, the world’s highest mountains
Mt. Everest – 29,028 feet
Himalayas separate the Indian subcontinent from Asia

7. Long Journey of the Indus
Spring – swells from melting snow, flooding the Indus Plain with twice the fertile silt as the Nile
Flows south and empties in the Arabian Gulf
1800 mile journey through modern-day Pakistan
Rushes through 3-mile deep canyons, 3 times the depth of the Grand Canyon
Joins other rivers in the dry Indus Plain, which
forms a huge delta before empting
into the Arabian Sea

8. Agriculture and the Indus River
6000 BC crops first planted
1000 before Egypt
Crops
Wheat
Barley
Beans
Sesame
Rice
Banana
Black pepper
Mustard
cotton
Built irrigation canals and protective walls
Domesticated animals
Water buffalo
plows
Plant and harvest twwice a year
Fall crops
Agriculture and the Indus River

9. Working with the Environment
Walls not always enough
Floods could wipe out whole villages
Wildlife problems threatened life or crops
Tigers
Jackals
Wild pigs
Deer
birds
Developed weapons
Slings
Clay balls
Responsibility of the children

10. Draw the map
Turn to page 131 and draw the map of India. Trace the Gangees River and the Indus River
Color code and indicate the Indus Plain
Know where the Indus River originates, when it floods, and into what body of water it empties.

11. VENN Diagram Make a three realm VENN Diagram telling the following:
Origin
Length
Flooding
Flood control
Effect of Floods
River as a trade route
Include the Nile, Fertile Crescent and Indus River