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 mysteries that still remain about 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 mystery, figurine, granary.

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

Mystery, figurine, granary.

Good job.

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

Here are the definitions for each of our keywords.

A mystery is something that we aren't able to explain yet.

A small statue or model of a person is called a figurine.

A granary is a large building used to store grain from the harvest.

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 we know about the Indus Valley civilization, and what are the mysteries? In the first learning cycle, we'll explore what we know about the Indus Valley civilization.

There are lots of things that archaeologists and historians think they know about the Indus Valley civilization.

We think that their cities probably looked something like this.

Have a look at this artist's illustration of an Indus Valley city.

What can you see there? Well, what can you see in the city that you've already learned about? Their cities were very well planned, organised and built to last a long time.

They were made of bricks with wide streets and tall walls to protect their buildings from flood water.

They had wells for fresh water and covered drains to take dirty water away.

The people drove carts pulled by animals, and the children played with toys.

They also had brick toilets connected to the drains, and laid their cities with straight streets.

So how do historians know all of this, I wonder? Archaeologists have found lots of evidence of these things in the ruins of the cities in the Indus Valley.

Look at this photo here of the ruins of Mohenjo-Daro.

This image, can you remember what this is? This is the photo of a brick toilet.

And what about this third image here? What does this show? That's correct, it's the photo of a well.

So all these things that were found, they help the archaeologists understand the Indus Valley civilization.

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

What do we know about the Indus Valley cities? They had wells.

They had brick walls.

They had toilets.

They were well organised.

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 we know they had wells, they had brick walls, they had toilets and they were also well organised, you are absolutely right, well done.

Now, do the bricks and ruins tell us what the people of the Indus Valley felt and thought? Well, no, they can't.

How do we normally find out what people feel and think and what they believed in? Hmm, interesting question.

Well, to find this out, historians need to be able to read the writing of the people of the Indus Valley civilization.

And sadly, historians do not know yet how to read it, but there may be new, exciting discoveries in the future that will help to unlock the secrets of how to read their writing and understand more about them.

So not all is lost.

Things are found and discovered all the time.

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

Help Andeep to finish this sentence.

"When we can read what people have written, "then we can find out about their," what? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner.

Help Andeep finish this sentence, and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? Let's take a look at an example, shall we? When we read what people have written, then we can find out about their thoughts and feelings because what they've written is able to tell us that, rather than the historians trying to make a good guess.

This brings us to our first learning task.

Can you match the discovery to what it tells us about the people of the Indus Valley civilization? So we have straight streets, drains, wells, tall walls.

What do each of those discoveries tell us? They were able to get clean water.

They protected their buildings from the flood water.

They could flush away dirty water.

They were good at organising cities.

So pause the video here, and give yourself enough time to match the discovery to what it tells us about the people of the Indus Valley civilization.

And press play when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at the answers? So straight streets, they were good at organising cities.

That's what that discovery tells us.

Drains tells us they could flush away dirty water.

Wells tells us they were able to get clean water.

And those tall walls tell us that they protected their buildings from the flood water.

Well done for completing that learning task.

This brings us to the second part of our lesson.

We're going to explore the mysteries that there still are about the Indus Valley civilization.

There are still many mysteries to be solved about the Indus Valley civilization.

Their religion is still a mystery, but there are lots of objects which might give us clues about this.

Do you think any of these could give us any clues? Have a look at those images.

Do you think they could give us clues about their religion? We have a photo of a part of a statue here.

We've got a photo of a female figurine.

And we've got a photo of clay figurines.

I wonder what could they tell us about the Indus Valley civilization? What clues could they give? Well, part of a statue has been found with the head of what might have been a priest.

The clues that tell us this are his headband and decorated robes, which are similar to others worn by priests in other ancient and modern religions.

There are lots of female figurines, which might have been of a mother goddess who looked after the people.

The clues that suggest this include her headdress and lots of jewellery, again, similar to mother goddesses in other religions.

And small figurines with their hands together have also been found.

These may show the Indus Valley people praying to their gods and goddesses.

So they show us lots of different clues about what their possible religion could have been.

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

Historians know everything about the religion of the people of the Indus Valley.

Is that true or false? What do you think? Is that statement true or false? If you said that it's false, you're absolutely right.

Now, looking at these two statements, which would help to justify your answer.

They don't make any guesses based on what they find.

They have to make guesses based on what they find.

So what do the historians have to do? They don't make any guesses based on what they find, or they have to make guesses based on what they find.

Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? Which of these two statements helps to justify your answer? If you said that the historians have to make guesses based on what they find, you're absolutely right, well done.

A clay seal that has been found in the Indus Valley shows even more similarities to other religions that we know about.

There is a person in the top corner who seems important because they are higher than everyone else, and someone is bowing down in front of them.

They have horns on their head, and many other religions have gods and goddesses with horns.

For example, the ancient Egyptians believed in a goddess called Hathor, who had cow horns.

The people at the bottom of the seal might be other gods with horns, or maybe the people of the Indus Valley were dressing up as their god or goddess.

The animal on the clay seal might have been a special animal that the people were offering to their god or goddess, similar to other religions.

There is some writing in the top corner of the seal, and maybe one day when it can be read, it will tell us exactly what is happening in the picture.

So have a good look at the picture there.

Can you see all of those things? That person with the horns that seems important.

Some of that Indus Valley writing.

Perhaps an animal that acts as a special offering.

And the people at the bottom who also have horns.

Archaeologists have found lots of figurines of people, animals and scenes from everyday life, such as animals pulling a cart full of food.

These are another mystery, and historians can only make guesses about what they might have been used for.

What do you think they might have been used for? Pause the video here, and have a quick discussion with your partner.

What do you think any of these might have been used for? And press play when you're ready to continue.

Well, the figurines could have been used as toys, or maybe they were part of their religion.

Other religions that we know about offer small statues to the gods that they believe in.

And the figurines are one of the many mysteries of the Indus Valley.

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

Can you fill in the sentences below with a correct keyword from today's lesson? The religion of the ancient Indus Valley civilization is still a what? Small clay what might help to give us clues about their religion? So pause the video here.

Have a think.

Which of the key words from today's lesson could be used to fill the sentences to complete them? And press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? Shall we take a look? So the religion of the ancient Indus Valley civilization is still a mystery.

Some small clay figurines might help to give us clues about their religion.

Well done if you were able to fill those sentences with the correct key word.

The archaeologists have not been able to find any ruins of palaces in the ancient Indus Valley cities.

What type of people normally live in palaces? What do you think? Lots of palaces have been found in the cities of other ancient civilizations.

But perhaps nobody was in charge of the ancient Indus Valley cities, and everyone was equal.

However, they were organised people.

We know that they were very good at organising and building their cities.

We have seen brick circle platforms from the Indus Valley cities before.

Historians thought that these were inside buildings called granaries for threshing crops and grinding grain to make flour for bread.

These are similar methods to other ancient civilizations, and even similar to methods still used in parts of the world today.

However, the archaeologists would've expected to find some evidence of grain in the circles in the granary buildings, but they have not found any.

Grinding grain for flour to make bread is the best guess for what these were used for.

But it is still a puzzle which hasn't been solved just yet.

Do you have any ideas to help solve this mystery? Have a think.

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

Which objects show that there are still mysteries about the Indus Valley civilization? Female figurine, the clay seal, the granary circles.

Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner.

Which objects show that there are still mysteries about the Indus Valley civilization? And press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said the female figurine, the clay seal and the granary circles, all of these objects are still mysteries about the Indus Valley civilization.

We haven't completely understood the Indus Valley civilization from these objects.

This brings us to our final learning task.

I'd like you to describe at least two of the mysteries about the Indus Valley civilization to your learning partner.

Can you include these words, mystery, religion, figurines, granary, clues, palaces, writing, clay seals.

So pause the video here.

Give yourself enough time to describe at least two of the mysteries about the Indus Valley civilization to your learning partner, and press play when you are ready to continue.

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

"The religion of the Indus Valley civilization is a mystery "because nobody can read the writing they used.

"There are lots of clues on clay seals and figurines, "but nobody's sure what they believed in.

"Another mystery is the granary circles.

"Historians think that they use them to make flour, "but haven't found any grains to prove this.

"A third mystery "is that there are no palaces in the ancient cities, "so nobody is sure who was in charge." Well done for completing this learning task.

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

There is a lot that archaeologists understand about the Indus Valley civilization, but also many mysteries.

Historians do not yet know how to read the writing of the Indus Valley.

Their religion is a mystery to us, although figurines and clay seals may give us some clues.

Archaeologists have not been able to find any ruins of palaces or work out who was in charge of the cities, but they were clearly very well organised.

Archaeologists haven't found any evidence of grain near the brick circles that they thought were in granaries.

So this is another mystery.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson today.

I hope to see you in the next one.

See you next time.