Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping, and I'm 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 features of cities in the Indus Valley civilization.

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: merchant and artisan.

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

Merchant, artisan.

Good job.

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

Here are the definitions for each of those keywords.

Someone who buys and sells things is called a merchant.

An artisan is someone very skilled at making things.

Pause the video here to make a note of these keywords, and when you are ready to continue, press Play.

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

How were the Indus Valley cities built? What was life like in the Indus Valley cities? In the first learning cycle, we'll explore how the Indus Valley cities were built.

Civilizations began where people were very successful at farming.

As they grew more food, they could feed more people in that place, and they had to build more permanent buildings for everyone.

These became the first cities of the world.

Historians believe that this is what happened in the Indus Valley.

The people in the Indus Valley started farming around 8,000 years ago.

The first farmers lived near the river, because it kept the land green and fertile for growing crops.

And over time, the villages slowly grew better and better at farming, and they could grow more food and feed more people.

Have a look there, that photo of the fertile Indus Valley today.

So that's what it looks like today.

Still a great place to grow food.

By around 5,000 years ago, the Indus had huge cities like Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.

These were not the only cities in the Indus Valley.

There were more than 1,000 towns and cities there.

Let's take a moment to pause here.

Andeep is thinking about how cities started in the Indus Valley.

Is Andeep correct? Let's have a look.

Andeep says, cities started in the Indus Valley because farmers got better at farming and could grow more food for more people.

(Mrs. Tipping humming) Is Andeep correct about how cities started in the Indus Valley? Pause the video here, and have a quick discussion with your partner, and then press Play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? Well, Andeep is correct.

Over time, the groups of farmers started building cities for more people because they got better at farming and they could grow more food so more people could stay.

Cities of the Indus Valley civilization were very well built.

The houses and streets were laid out in a grid pattern, and most were surrounded by protective walls all the way around.

The streets in the city were wide enough for two elephants to pass each other, which was ideal for a city packed full of merchants busily buying and selling their items. So you can see that photo of the ruins there of Mohenjo-Daro where they have those protective walls, and how it's set up like a grid pattern.

Buildings in the Indus Valley were made out of clay bricks.

These bricks were so strong that lots of them are still standing thousands of years later.

To make bricks, the people in the Indus Valley mixed wet mud with clay, and pressed it into a mould to give it the right shape.

After being shaped, the brick would be left in the hot sun, or in a huge fire oven, to bake until it turned hard.

They used more wet mud and clay to stick the bricks together to make walls and buildings.

Have a look at that photo of bricks at Harappa, how they've lasted thousand of years, and they still look beautiful.

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

Select the two ingredients that the Indus Valley people used to make clay bricks.

Sand, mud, rocks, clay.

Pause the video here, have a think.

Which two ingredients did the Indus Valley people use to make clay bricks? And press Play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that they used mud and clay, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

This brings us to our first learning task.

I'd like you to solve the clues to complete the puzzle.

So in across, number one.

The people in the Indus Valley started to what 8,000 years ago.

Down, number one.

Over time, they were able to grow more, what? Number two, down, the Indus Valley people used clay and mud to make, what? So have a go.

Pause the video here.

Give yourself enough time to solve the clues to complete the puzzle.

So you need to put letters in each of those boxes when you've worked out what the word is from the clues.

And press Play when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at some answers? So the people in the Indus Valley started to farm 8,000 years ago.

So can you see how one across has got the word farm written in it? Down, over time, they were able to grow more food.

So one down you can see is food.

And two down, the Indus Valley people used clay and mud to make bricks.

Can you see two down has bricks in there? Well done if you were able to solve that puzzle using the clues.

Well done for completing that learning task.

We're now ready to move on to the final part of our lesson.

We're going to explore what life was like in the Indus Valley cities.

The farmers in the cities in the Indus Valley grew enough food to feed everyone living there.

This meant that other people had lots of different jobs.

There were builders, merchants, artisans, bakers, cart makers, and much more.

Historians know that the Indus Valley merchants bought and sold items with far away places, because lots of their clay seals have been found in the ruins of other ancient civilizations in other parts of the world.

Historians also know that they were very skilled people, because they have discovered objects, like gold jewellery, that must have been made by special gold artisans.

Have a look at that photo of gold jewellery that was found at Mohenjo-Daro.

I'm sure they needed to clean it up, but look how wonderfully shiny that is after thousands of years probably being buried underneath the ground.

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

What types of people probably lived in the Indus Valley? Merchants, farmers, artisans, builders.

(Mrs. Tipping humming) What do you think? Pause the video here, and have a quick discussion with your partner.

What types of people probably lived in the Indus Valley? And press Play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said merchants, farmers, artisans, and builders, you are absolutely right.

All of these different types of people lived in the Indus Valley.

The Indus Valley cities were very well planned, and even more advanced with their water systems than the early Romans hundreds of years later.

This meant they were very clean.

Can you guess what these parts of the cities were for? (Mrs. Tipping humming) So we have a well, and we have covered drains.

(Mrs. Tipping humming) Well, the Indus Valley cities had wells to provide everyone with fresh water for drinking, washing, and cooking.

So they were very clever to have these systems put in place.

The brick houses had pipes for their used water to drain away into the drains in the street, just like we have today.

Some houses even had flushable toilets, dirty water from toilets in houses flowed into the drains under the streets and all the way out onto the fields.

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

Which two things helped to make the Indus Valley cities cleaner? Wells, walls, toilets.

Pause the video here.

Have a moment to think, and press Play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that wells and toilets helped to make the Indus Valley cities cleaner, you are absolutely right.

Well done.

What do you think this might have been used for? (Mrs. Tipping humming) Have a look there, that photo of ruins at Mohenjo-Daro.

What do you think this might have been used for? Well, archaeologists have found what looks like a huge swimming pool at Mohenjo-Daro, and this is known as the Great Bath.

The pool was made to be waterproof, but historians are unsure exactly what it was used for.

Perhaps it was for all the people in the city to wash and relaxing, or maybe it was only for religious uses for priestesses and priests to worship the goddesses and gods that they believed in.

(Mrs. Tipping humming) What do you think? I wonder what it was used for.

Let's take a moment here to pause.

Can you match the job to the description? So we have a merchant, a builder, an artisan, a farmer.

Someone who uses bricks to make buildings, someone very skilled at making things like jewellery, someone who buys and sells things, someone who works in the fields to grow food.

(Mrs. Tipping humming) Pause the video here.

Have a go at matching the job to the description.

You can have a discussion with your partner if you like, and press Play when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? Shall we have a look? Shall we match up the job to the description? So a merchant is someone who buys and sells things.

A builder is someone who uses bricks to make buildings.

An artisan is someone very skilled at making things like jewellery.

A farmer is someone who works in the fields to grow food.

Well done if you can match those jobs to the description correctly.

This brings us to our final learning task.

I'd like you to tell your learning partner what the cities of the Indus Valley were like for the people living there.

You could mention these words: farmers, merchants, wells, artisans, clean, bricks.

So pause the video here.

Give yourself enough time to tell your learning partner what the cities of the Indus Valley were like for the people living there.

And when you're ready to continue, press Play.

How did that go? Were you able to tell your learning partner about the cities of the Indus Valley and what they were like for the people? Let's have a look at an example, shall we? Your answer could include, farmers started the cities and they got bigger and bigger.

They were built from clay bricks and were very clean, because they have lots of fresh water from wells.

They also had toilets and drains for all of the dirty water to flow to the fields.

Artisans made beautiful things like jewellery, and merchants bought and sold items with far away places.

Well done if you were able to describe what the cities were like for people living there to your partner.

And well done for completing that learning task.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about the cities of the Indus Valley civilization.

As the people of the Indus Valley grew better at farming, they could grow more food, and gradually villages became cities.

These great cities like Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were very well planned and well built from clay bricks.

Thousands of people like farmers, builders, merchants, and artisans lived in these cities.

The cities were very clean because they had drains, lots of wells for fresh water, and even toilets.

A Great Bath has been found at Mohenjo-Daro, which might have been for people to wash in, but we're still not sure.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson today.

We've learned a lot about the cities of the Indus Valley civilization.

I hope to see you in the next lesson.

See you next time.