Social Science [2 Mark Questions]

The farmers and herders who gave food to the Harappan cities knew about agriculture and domestication of animals. So they supplied food to the city dwellers. The farmers and herders in the earlier period cultivated the fields themselves and domesticated the animals. So they provided their own food.

Most of the terracotta toys are the models of clay, which show animal figures. Most probably the toys are models of cattle, rhinoceros, cow etc.

Archaeologists know that people in the in the Harappan civilization use cloth because they have found pieces of cloth attached to the lid of a silver vase. They have also found spindle whorls, made of terracotta and faience. They were used to spin thread.

1. Cart and.
2. Boat.

The earliest cities of the Indian subcontinent emerged around 4,700 years in the region drained by Indus and its tributaries in the North-West.

1. It has been found that baked bricks were used in all buildings.
2. These bricks were laid in an interlocking pattern to make strong walls.

1. Generally, houses were either one or two storeys high with a single room built around a courtyard.
2. Most houses had a separate bathing area and some had wells to supply water.

1. Historians believe that the people of the Indus-Valley civilisation were literate. Many seals have been discovered. We can note lines (or symbols) of signs on the top of several seals of the Harappan people. These are parts of what historians call a script. This is the earliest form of writing known in the subcontinent.
2. Scholars have made many efforts to read these signs (or decipher the Harappan script), but we still do not know exactly what they mean.

The names are:Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Kalibangan, Rakhi Garhi, Chanhudaro, Dholavira, Surkotada, Lothal and Sotkakoh.

The Great Bath is a tank excavated in Mohenjodaro. It has steps leading from two sides. The bath was lined with bricks and coated with bitumen to make it water proof.

The roads were wide and cut each other at right angles. Houses were built on both sides and covered drains ran along the streets.

The people of Harappans grew wheat, barely, pulses, peas, rice, sesame, linseed and mustard. We today eat all these things they collected ber, hunted wild animal and caught fish.

Raw materials are substances that are either found naturally or produced by farmers or herders. These are then processed to produce finished goods.

Both cities were divided into two main parts:

1. Upper part and
2. Lower part.

The main food of the Harrappans were wheat, barley, pulses, peas, rice, sesame, linseed and mustard together with meat, milk and milk products.

The Great Bath was lined with bricks, coated with plaster and made water tight with a layer of natural tar. There were steps leading down from two sides into the tank.

The main Harappan towns in Gujrat were Dholavira, located on Khadir Beyt in the Rann of Kutch and Lothal that stood beside a tributary of the Sabarmati, close to the gulf of Khambat.

Harappan seals had pictures of animals that relate to a wet and marshy environment. Rhinoceroses, elephants, and tigers were placed in the midst of marshy plants.

In Harrappan city, which is the first urban site in India, houses were either one or two storeys high, with rooms built around a courtyard.

Cotton was probably grown at Mehragarh about 7000 years ago. Mehragarh was also the first site in India where agricultural activities took place.

Important people (priests, rulers) took ritual baths in this tank. The tank was lined with kiln burnt bricks, plaster of gypsum and bitumen was used to make the tank water resistant.