Enquiry question How can we find out about

Enquiry question: How can we find out about the Indus Valley civilisation?

Many questions about the Indus people who created this highly complex culture remain unanswered, but other aspects of their society can be answered through various types of archaeological studies/finds. To this day, remains of the Indus Valley civilisation are continuing to be found and excavated.

The Discovery of the Indus Valley Although The Indus Valley civilisation is thought to be one of the earliest civilisations, we know very little about the people and how they lived in comparison to some other civilisations that you have studied throughout primary school. As you know, Historians often have different accounts and perceptions of historical events and it is our job to make our own interpretations. It is IMPORTANT that we do not rely on just one source to give us facts about a civilisation/history. We should, as good Historians ourselves, use different types of primary and secondary evidence to help us to develop our interpretation.

What discovery mean? Discovery means to find something out that not many people knew before. It doesn’t necessarily mean that someone who discovers something is the ‘first’ to find this information out. Some discoveries have been documented (written down) and other discoveries will remain unknown. With that being said, we should question whether those known explorers who ‘discovered’ civilisations were in fact the ‘first’. We also need to be careful not to give credit to these explorers for the achievements of the civilisations.

Rather than focussing on ‘who’ were the first to discover remains of this civilisation, we will look at ‘what’ was found and what does this ‘tell us’ about the civilisation. Let’s investigate artefacts AND excavations.

https: //www. harappa. com/slideshows/around-indus-90 -slides The website above will take you to 90 different artefacts/excavations/facts relating to the Indus Valley civilisation. When you click on the artefact/excavation of your choice, you will find some more information regarding that artefact/excavation. There will be also be more tabs underneath the photo that you can click on to find out further information. Task: 1. Choose 5 different artefacts/excavations to learn about. 2. Draw it. 3. Answer these questions for each one: • What is it? • What is it made from? • What was it used for? • What does it tell us about life in the Indus Valley? • Who might have used it? • Write down an other observations you make?

Reflection: This is a newspaper report that has been written for children. Where do you think the reporter, Laura Baggley, got her information from?