*Ancient: India*

Varnas

Another word for the social classes in the Caste system that ranked people from high to low

achieved many notable advances in technology, including great accuracy in their systems and tools for measuring length and mass.

Fire-baked bricks—which were uniform in size and moisture-resistant—were important in building baths and sewage structures and are evidence that Harappans were among the first to develop a system of standardized weights and measures. The consistency of brick size across cities also suggests unity across the various urban areas, which is evidence of a broader civilization.

One of the ways historians know about the maritime trade network operating between the Harappan and Mesopotamian civilizations is the discovery of

Harappan seals and jewelry at archaeological sites in regions of Mesopotamia, which includes most of modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, and parts of Syria.

Indus River Civilization (3300 bce) is also called

Harrapin Civilization

What area?

Indus River Valley ( extended from modern-day northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India.)

decline

Some experts believe the drying of the Saraswati River, which began around 1900 BCE, was the main cause for climate change, while others conclude that a great flood struck the area. Another disastrous change in the Harappan climate might have been eastward-moving monsoons, or winds that bring heavy rains. Monsoons can be both helpful and detrimental to a climate, depending on whether they support or destroy vegetation and agriculture. By 1800 BCE, the Indus Valley climate grew cooler and drier, and a tectonic event may have diverted or disrupted river systems, which were the lifelines of the Indus Valley Civilization. The Harappans may have migrated toward the Ganges basin in the east, where they could have established villages and isolated farms. These small communities would not have been able to produce the same agricultural surpluses to support large cities. With the reduced production of goods, there would have been a decline in trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia. By around 1700 BCE, most of the Indus Valley Civilization cities had been abandoned.

Sanskirt

The language spoken by the Aryans. It is the root of may languages in India including Hindi.

It also appears they built boats and watercraft—a claim supported by

archaeological discoveries of a massive, dredged canal, and what is regarded as a docking facility at the coastal city of Lothal.

Especially their innovations in

baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, and clusters of large, nonresidential buildings. (Most city-dwellers were artisans and merchants grouped together in distinct neighborhoods. The quality of urban planning suggests efficient municipal governments that placed a high priority on hygiene or religious ritual.)

Indus River Valley Civilization is considered a ______ Age society;

bronze

Harappans demonstrated advanced architecture with

dockyards, granaries, warehouses, brick platforms, and protective walls. These massive walls likely protected the Harappans from floods and may have deterred military conflicts.

At its peak, the Indus Valley Civilization may have had a population of over

five million people.

Harappans also engaged in shellworking, and shells used in their crafts have origins

from as far away as the coast of modern-day Oman.

Harappans participated in a vast

maritime—sea—trade network extending from Central Asia to the Middle East.

Trade focused on importing raw materials to be used in Harappan city workshops:

minerals from Iran and Afghanistan, lead and copper from other parts of India, jade from China, and cedar wood floated down rivers from the Himalayas and Kashmir. Other trade goods included terracotta pots, gold, silver, metals, beads, flints for making tools, seashells, pearls, and colored gemstones, such as lapis lazuli and turquoise.

The Harappan Civilization may have been the first to use wheeled transport, in the form of

oxcarts that are identical to those seen throughout South Asia today.

Long-distance sea trade over bodies of water—such as the Arabian Sea, Red Sea and the Persian Gulf—may have become feasible with the development of

plank watercraft that were each equipped with a single central mast supporting a sail of woven rushes or cloth.

Important innovations of this civilization include

standardized weights and measures, seal carving, and metallurgy with copper, bronze, lead, and tin.

seal carving

the cutting of patterns into the bottom face of a seal, a small, carved object used for stamping. (They used these distinctive seals for the identification of property and to stamp clay on trade goods. Seals—decorated with animal figures, such as elephants, tigers, and water buffalos—have been one of the most commonly discovered artifacts in Indus Valley cities.)

Indus River Valley developed new techniques in metallurgy—

the science of working with copper, bronze, lead, and tin.

through vedas, the first time we have reference

to a stratified social structure (varnas)

The Indus cities are noted for their

urban planning (a technical and political process concerned with the use of land and design of the urban environment)

Mohenjo-daro, and the recently partially-excavated Rakhigarhi demonstrate the world's first known

urban sanitation systems

collection of literary works?

vedas (means knowledge)

post-indus valley civilization called?

vedic period (migration of the indo-aryans)