Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping, and I am really looking forward to learning with you today all about the earliest civilizations, the Indus and the Shang.

So, shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to describe some of the archaeological finds uncovered at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.

Before we start, I would like to introduce you to some keywords.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write these words down.

The keywords we'll be using today are Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, Indus Valley civilization, threshing, seal.

I'm going to say those again and I'd like you to repeat them after me.

Harappa.

Mohenjo-Daro.

Indus Valley civilization.

Threshing.

Seal.

Good job.

Now let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean.

Let's take a look at the definitions for each of our keywords.

Harappa was the first Indus Valley civilization site to be excavated.

Mohenjo-Daro was the second Indus Valley civilization site to be excavated.

The people who lived in the Indus Valley in ancient times are known as the Indus Valley civilization.

The act of separating the parts of a crop that can be eaten from the parts that can't is called threshing.

A seal is a decorated object that is pushed into a soft material like wet clay or wax in order to leave an imprint of its design.

So pause the video here to make a note of these keywords, and when you're ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles that we'll be working through together in today's lesson.

What can we learn from the Indus Valley cities? What can we learn from the objects found there? In the first learning cycle, we'll explore what we can learn from the Indus Valley cities.

The River Indus flows through the countries that we call Pakistan and India today.

In the Indus River Valley in 1921, Harappa was the first Indus Valley civilization site to be excavated.

Shortly after this, in 1922, archaeologists began digging at another site in the Indus Valley called Mohenjo-Daro.

So let's take a look at the map there that shows the Indus River Valley.

Can you see where Harappa is and where Mohenjo-Daro is and where they are along the Indus River? So what did they find at Mohenjo-Daro? Well, what they discovered there showed them that this city was once the largest city of the Indus Valley civilization! The city and the objects discovered show us that the people who lived there were intelligent and skilled.

So have a look there, that photo of the ruins of Mohenjo-Daro.

So you can go and see those today.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Which city was once the largest city of the Indus Valley civilization, Harappa, Babylon, Mohenjo-Daro? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that the largest city of the Indus Valley civilization was Mohenjo-Daro, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

Mohenjo-Daro was built with bricks baked from clay in rectangular moulds.

There were lots of platforms for buildings, so buildings were at a higher level than the straight streets around them.

So why do you think they built platforms for their buildings? Well, historians think that these platforms might have protected the buildings when the River Indus flooded.

Ah, how clever.

What do you think these brick circle platforms were used for? Hmm.

Take a look at that photo there.

Have a quick discussion with your partner.

Pause the video here, and when you're ready to continue, press play.

What did you think? What do you think those brick circle platforms were used for? Well, historians think that the people in the Indus Valley civilization might have used the circles for crop threshing.

This could tell us that the people who lived there knew about the river flooding and were intelligent enough to build strong, long-lasting cities that were protected from the floods.

So have a look at that illustration there of people threshing crops.

Look at that tool that they used.

Brick circle platforms have also been found, and these are puzzling for historians.

The people in the Indus Valley civilization might have used the circles for crop threshing.

They would've hit the crops onto the circles to separate the parts of the plants that could be eaten from the parts that could not.

Today, farmers use huge machines to do this difficult job.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Can you match the discovery at Mohenjo-Daro to the possible explanation? So we have raised building platforms, brick circles in the ground, protection from flood water, crop threshing.

Hmm.

So can you match the discovery to the possible explanation? Pause the video here, and when you're ready to continue, press play.

What did you think? Shall we take a look at an example? So, raised building platforms offered protection from flood water, and brick circles in the ground were for crop threshing.

That's the possible explanation for each of these discoveries.

This brings us to our first learning task.

Can you underline the correct word to complete the sentences below? The first Indus Valley civilization city to be excavated was Harappa or Mohenjo-Daro.

Archaeologists began digging at Mohenjo-Daro in 1822 or 1922.

The city was built from rocks or bricks.

Buildings were on platforms higher or lower than the streets.

The brick rectangle/circle platforms might have been used for crop threshing.

So have a look at each of those purple words.

Which one of them is correct to leave in the sentence? Underline the one that you want to leave in there to complete that sentence.

Pause the video here and give yourself enough time, and when you're ready to continue, press play.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at some answers? So, the first Indus Valley civilization city to be excavated was Harappa.

Well done if you got that correct.

Archaeologists began digging at Mohenjo-Daro in 1922.

The city was built from bricks.

Buildings were on platforms higher than the streets.

The brick circle platforms might have been used for crop threshing.

Well done if you were able to underline the correct word to complete those sentences.

Well done for completing that learning task.

We're now going to go into the second part of our lesson.

We're going to explore what we can learn from the objects that were found there in the Indus Valley cities.

So what else was found at Mohenjo-Daro? Well, lots of pieces of pottery have been found at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.

They were probably used to store things like food and to transport items to other places.

They have been painted with animals and patterns, which show us that the people in the Indus Valley civilization were artistic and skilled.

Have a look there at those photos, the photo of decorated pottery found at Mohenjo-Daro and some broken pottery that was also found at Mohenjo-Daro.

What do you think those animals are, and can you see the different patterns that were used? I wonder what they painted them with.

Other clay items that were found in Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro include thousands of small clay seals.

What animals can you see on the seals? Have a look, that first one and then that second one.

Hmm, they might be familiar to us.

Well, what do you think as well that those seals were used for? Hmm, I wonder.

Well, they are very small and they were usually around five centimetres wide.

So imagine that on your ruler, five centimetres, quite small, with a hole at the back for a string.

So this suggests that they were maybe hung up or worn around the neck like a necklace.

Now, the clay seals have one image of an animal carved into them and some writing above the image.

Unfortunately, historians do not yet know how to read the type of writing used by the Indus Valley civilization, so we don't know what the seals say.

But they do show us that the people of the Indus Valley civilization were skilled artists to carve such tiny pictures so well that we can still recognise the animals today.

Did you see what was in both of the seals? You could see a rhino, and on the other one, an elephant.

Have a look there, the image of a rhino.

How interesting though that we still don't know what that writing actually says.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Select two things that are found on the Indus Valley civilization seals.

Some numbers, an image of an animal, an image of a house, some writing.

Hmm, what do you think? Pause the video here, have a quick discussion with your partner, and when you're ready to continue, press play.

What did you think? The two things that are found on Indus Valley civilization seals are an image of an animal and some writing.

Well done if you remembered those.

The seals are decorated objects that leave a stamp of the design when pushed into a soft material like wet clay.

They could use this to make lots of little tags with the same design on them to be attached to things.

So you can see here, this is a seal that was found in the Indus Valley, and this is the stamp that it leaves behind when pressed into wet clay.

Historians think that the seals were probably used for buying and selling items. The stamped clay tags with the special design on them might have shown who the items belonged to once they had been sold, or they might have shown the places where the items had come from.

So have a think, when we have an item, sometimes on the bottom it might say things like made in China, so it shows where it's come from.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Laura is thinking about seals found in the Indus Valley.

Find the mistake she has made.

She says, "Seals were very big metal stamps that showed an animal with some writing.

They were probably used for buying and selling items." So where has Laura made a mistake? Pause the video here, have a discussion with your partner, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? Did you find the mistake? Well, Laura said before that seals were metal stamps, but they're not.

Seals were very small clay stamps that showed an animal with some writing, and they were probably used for buying and selling.

Well done if you were able to spot that mistake.

What do you think these items found at Mohenjo-Daro were used for? Hmm.

We have a photo of a clay model of a dancing woman, photo of a clay bird-shaped whistle, and a photo of a clay model of animals pulling a cart.

Hmm, what were they used for? Well, historians don't know what the items were used for, so they made guesses.

Thousands of items were found in the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, and historians have used their knowledge to make guesses about what they might have been used for, because nobody has worked out how to read their writing yet.

Maybe they were toys or they were used for religious reasons.

Maybe the dancing woman model and the whistle tell us that the people of the Indus Valley civilization would make music and dance to it.

What historians and archaeologists can work out is that the people of the Indus Valley civilization were intelligent and organised people who could build great cities that have lasted for thousands of years.

Let's take a moment to pause here.

Can you select the items that have been found in the Indus Valley at Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa? Paper, clay seals, whistles, small clay animals.

Hmm.

Pause the video here, select the items that have been found in the Indus Valley at Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that clay seals and whistles were found and small clay animals as well, you're absolutely right, well done.

This brings us to our final learning task.

I'd like you to complete the label for this clay seal so that it can be displayed in a museum.

On this clay seal you can see it was found in the Nile/Indus River Valley.

The seal might have been used for.

So, on that label, there are some sentence starters and a sentence that you need to complete by choosing either the Nile or Indus.

So have a go.

Pause the video here, give yourself enough time to complete that label for this clay seal so it can be displayed in a museum, and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at an example? So, you might have something like this.

On this clay seal, you can see an elephant and some unknown writing.

It was found in the Indus River Valley.

The seal might have been used for showing who owned items that were bought and sold in the Indus Valley civilization.

Well done for completing that learning task.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learnt about archaeology and the Indus.

After discovering a city at Harappa in 1921, another city in the Indus Valley called Mohenjo-Daro was discovered in 1922.

This city was built of bricks with buildings on platforms and brick circles where people might have done crop threshing.

Thousands of clay seals with animal images and unknown writing were discovered, which might have been used in trade.

From these discoveries, archaeologists have found that the people of the Indus Valley civilization were organised and intelligent.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson today.

I hope to see you in the next one.

See you next time.