Ancient India! Cities and Caste System.

The Indus River Valley Civilization

➔ Like Other Early Civilizations:

➔ Located near a river.

➔ Built cities with irrigation.

➔ Written language.

➔ Ancient location of hunter-gatherer sites before settlements.

➔ Major Cities of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro.

Lots of Archaeological Evidence!

➔ Cities laid out in patterns with sewers, food storage, etc. This means Strong Leadership.

➔ Very few weapons. This indicates a Peaceful Society.

➔ Artifacts suggest Animal Worship.

➔ We know that they traded with the Sumerians.

➔ Our knowledge is still limited because their Pictographic writing has not yet been deciphered.

Flood Technology For protection from seasonal floods and polluted waters, the settlements were built on giant platforms and elevated grounds. Upon these foundations, networks of streets were laid out in neat patterns of straight lines and right angles. The buildings along the roads were all constructed of bricks that were uniform in size.

Undeciphered Writing

Teen deciphered the Mayan Language … It could be you. We don’t fully know them because of their language is not yet understood. It is pictographic.

Indus River Valley Video Summary

Caste System - Aryans The Aryans began to trickle into northern India. They settled with the Indus Valley people and slowly became absorbed into the Indus Valley community. Aryans (probably people from the black sea region) had a supposed cultural link to the Persian Aryans and the Indo-Europeans who (much earlier in ancient history) would become the Greeks, Latins, Germans, and Celts. Our knowledge of them comes chiefly from the Vedic texts.

The Aryans brought their religion and culture, which would become absorbed into the Indus Valley culture. Politically, India would become divided into several petty kingdoms.

Caste System Brought and Assimilated!

No longer were there Aryans vs. Indus Valley people. By

this period they were one people. The caste system

placed people in separate social levels-from the lowest to

the highest. Once a person was born into his/her specific

caste, he/she could not leave it. In other words, you stuck

to your own kind. Aryans brought a kind of societal

discrimination and spread it throughout the

culture.