Land of the Indus

Jade is a hard stone used to make jewellery and ornaments.

Indus city streets ran North-South and East-West.

A scribe was a person in ancient times who could read and write, and wrote things for other people.

If something is mythical, it is imaginary or made-up.

A geophysical scan uses radar, lasers and other x-ray technology to look beneath the ground for hidden objects.

How many people were there? Perhaps between 1 and 5 million in the Indus Valley.

The Saravati River had lots of cities too, not just the Indus.

Copper is a metal. It was used in ancient civilisations to make tools.

Steatite is a soft stone which can be carved using metal tools. Steatite hardens when it is fired in a kiln.

A furnace is a very hot fire used to melt rocks containing metals, and melt metal soft enough to shape.

Mesopotamia was an ancient civilisation in what is now Iraq; it lay between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Our word civilisation comes from the Ancient Roman (Latin) word,civis. meaning city. In a city, people felt safe from enemies. City people learned many new skills. They made clay pots, bricks and metal tools. Some could read and write. Some becametraders, travelling to other cities.

A settlement is a place where people live together, such as a village, town or city.

A bullock is a young bull or ox (male cattle) used to pull carts or ploughs.

An ancient civilisation is one which existed over 1,500 years ago.

A port city is a city by the sea, where boats can dock and people can buy or sell goods.

A detective is a person who investigates crimes by finding evidence.

An excavation map shows the site where an archaeologist is searching for artefacts.

To excavate an area is to uncover it by digging or removing earth.

A Hindu is a person who follows the ancient religion of Hinduism, which began in India.

The Indus is the longest river in Pakistan. Pakistan is a country in Asia. Look for it on the map. Afghanistan is to the west, China to the north, and India to the east. The Indus River begins in theHimalayaMountains, and flows nearly 3,000 kilometres to the Arabian Sea.

Materials or facts that can help you form a conclusion or judgment about something.

Resources are the raw materials people use for building or making things.

An amulet is a good-luck charm, like a locket, usually worn around the neck.

A compass is a device that shows the direction of the magnetic or true North.

Stone Agepeople hunted animals and gathered wild plants to eat. Rivers were good places to look for food. The first farmers also liked to live near rivers. A river keeps the land green and fertile for growing crops. Farmers lived together in villages. Indus Valley cities like Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro began as riverside farming villages about 5,000 years ago.

At Mohenjo-Daro it can get very hot, over 37ºC/ 100ºF.

Carnelian is a reddish-brown mineral stone used to make jewellery.

Minerals are natural substances like gold, silver, stone or sand.

The Indus Valley civilisation was bigger than modern Pakistan, and four times bigger than Britain! There were more than 1,400 towns and cities. The biggest cities were Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. Each city had as many as 80,000 people.

In the Sanskrit language of Ancient India, the Indus was called theSindhu. Other rivers such as the Sarasvati join the Indus as it flows down to the sea. The Indus Valley civilisation is sometimes called the Sindhu-Sarasvaticivilisation.

An aerial photograph is usually taken from an aircraft or hot air balloon and shows the landscape beneath.

BC is the abbreviation for Before Christ – which is before the Christian era.

The Stone Age was the period in ancient history when people made tools from stone, such as flint knives and axes.

Bronze is a metal made by mixing copper and tin.

The Induscivilisationbegan about 5,000 years ago. It was one of the first civilisations. The others were in Egypt,Mesopotamia(modern Iraq) and China. The Indus Valley civilisation was the biggest.

A slave is a person who is not free and has to work for an owner.

Sumer was a land in Mesopotamia, with one of the first civilisations, about 3500 BC.

An archaeologist is a person who studies ancient civilisations by examining the materials they left behind. These materials can include buildings, pottery, graves and tools.

The first city-civilisations grew powerful. Their kings lived in palaces. Rich people enjoyed gardens, games, music, dancing and feasts. But most people were poor. Some wereslaves.

Trade is exchanging goods. A trader is someone who makes a living by trade, buying and selling things that they or other people have grown, collected or made.

A kiln is a very hot oven used to bake and harden materials such as clay and bricks.

An Indus seal was a small stone block with a picture that left an impression when stamped into soft clay.

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A cemetery is a place where dead people are buried.

The Himalaya are the highest mountains in the world, to the north of India.

A well is a hole dug to find water underground.

An artefact is an object that has been made by a person. Archaeologists use old artefacts to learn about the past.

A citadel is a fortified place, usually in a raised position in or near a city.

A drain is a pipe or ditch made to carry away water from buildings.

A civilisation is a culture and society that developed in a region at a particular time.

To irrigate is to use water from a river or lake to feed farm crops in fields.

Faience is a material made by heating minerals until they melt; when it cools, it is hard and shiny.

A museum is a building that houses artefacts that have a historical value.

Taxes are what people have to pay to their government, as money or in ancient times as goods, such as sacks of grain.

A physical feature is a land shape formed by nature. Valleys, mountains and deserts are all physical features.

An archaeological site is an area that archaeologists are investigating.

There were lots of smaller cities, such as Lothal, Dholavira, Kalibangan and Banawali. These names of these cities were given in later times. We do not know what the Indus people themselves called their cities

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A record is information or data that has been collected and kept.

A valley is aphysical feature. Its the land shaped by a river. A valley can be V-shaped or U-shaped. A river can also create a wide, flat flood plain. The Indus Valley was shaped by the Indus River, and here people long ago built some of the first cities.

The Indus people needed river water to drink, wash and toirrigatetheir fields. They used water in religious ceremonies. They made boats to travel up and down the rivers. To the Indus people, their river wasThe King River.

The Indus civilization covered 4 times as much land as Britain.

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