Indus Valley Civilization
The Indus Valley Civilization reigned from 3000-1500 B.C.E. The Indus Valley was constructed of both Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro with each city has 35,000 people. We know very little about this civilization but what we know is fascinating. The people there built huge planned cities, straight streets, and brick homes with private baths. Also kids played with toys and women wore lipstick.
The homes in these cities were one or two stories high, were made of baked brick called adobe, had flat roofs, and they were all identical. Each house was built around a courtyard and had windows that were overlooking the courtyard but none were on the outside walls. Each house had its own drinking well and bathroom. Clay pipes went from the bathrooms to sewers that were under the streets and were drained into nearby rivers and streams.
Men and women were dressed in very colorful robes. Women wore jewelry made of gold and precious stone and they even wore lipstick.
A beautiful small bronze statue was found and this showed that they enjoyed dance and that they had a great skill with working with metals. In Mohenjo-Daro scientists found the remains of a large central pool with steps leading down at both ends. It could have been a public swimming pool or been used for religious ceremonies. Around the pool were smaller rooms that could have been dressing rooms and smaller pools that might have been private baths.
Dinner could have probably been warm wheat bread served with barley or rice. It appeared that they were very good farmers. They grew barley, peas, melons, wheat, and dates. Farms had cotton and they kept herds of sheep, pigs, zebus, and water buffalo. Fish were also caught in surrounding rivers for food. Each town had a large central storage building for grain. Crops were grown and all the harvest was stored centrally for the entire town.
There were also toys that were found in the cities. Some of the toys that were found were small carts, whistles shaped like birds, and toy monkeys which could slide down a string.
This ancient civilization had craftsmen that were skilled in pottery, weaving, and metalworking. The pottery is very high quality and the designs on it are unusually beautiful and intricate. Small statues have been found but no large ones. There are small statues of what they think is female gods. They have found bowls made of bronze and silver, goldsmiths also made beads and ornament from these metals. The metals that these objects are made of are not found in the Indus Valley, which means they either had to import all these items or had to import the metals to make there artifacts.
For transportation, the people used camels, oxen, and elephants to travel over land. They had carts with wooden wheels and they also had ships with one mast that were probably used to sail around the Arabian Sea.
