Indus Valley Civilisation — Part 2 MCQs with Explanations

The large Harappan towns had for fortifications which served the purpose of safety from robbers, protection against cattle raiders, protection against floods.

Most of the seals were made of steatite, which is a kind of soft stone. A few of them were also made of terracotta, gold, agate, chert, ivory and faience. The standard Harappan seal was square in shape with a 2X2 dimension. It is believed that the seals were used for commercial purposes.Most of the Harappan seals were made up of terracotta on which inscriptions and animals engrave on them.

Within the city, individual homes or groups of homes obtained water from wells. From a room that appears to have been set aside for bathing, waste water was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets. Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes.

The Indus or the Harappan civilisation belongs to the Chalcolithic or Bronze Age since the objects of copper and stone were found at the various sites of this civilisation. Nearly, 1,400 Harappan sites are known so far in the sub-continent.

The recovery of a large number of Mother Goddess figurines almost from every excavated site suggests that the Mother Goddess worship cult was very wide-spread during Indus days. The figurine has been cast with an elaborate headgear supported by a pair of bands and a brooch, tight-fitted short tunic with skirt part fastened with a broad waist-band using a medallion like clasp, and tight-fitted trousers, necklaces, ear-ornaments.

Giraffe was not known to the people of Indus Valley Civilisation.

Dancing Girl is a prehistoric bronze sculpture made in approximately 2500 BCE in the Indus Valley Civilisation city of Mohenjo-daro (in modern-day Pakistan), which was one of the earliest human cities. The Girl was in dancing position and was wearing a no. of bangles in her both hands

It is not Known.Seals found during excavation of Indus Valley Civilization had symbolic (pictographic) script which has not been deciphered yet.The Indus script (also known as the Harappan script) is a corpus of symbols produced by the Indus Valley Civilisation during the Kot Diji and Mature Harappan periods between 3500 and 1900 BCE.

Harappa was first discovered by Brittish archaeologist Sir Alexander Cunningham during excavations in 1872.

Pandit Madho Sarup Vats (12 April 1896 – 7 December 1955) was an Indian archaeologist and Sanskrit scholar who served as the Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) from 1950 to 1954. Pandit Vats is, especially, well known for his participation in the excavations at Mohenjodaro which he supervised from 1924.

Harappa was first discovered by Brittish archeologist Sir Alexander Cunningham during excavations in 1872.

Shortugai (Shortughai) was an Indus Valley Civilization trading colony established around 2000 BC on the Oxus river (Amu Darya) near the lapis lazuli mines in northern Afghanistan. It is considered to be the northernmost settlement of the Indus Valley Civilization.

It was half a century later, in 1912, that more Harappan seals were discovered by J. Fleet, prompting an excavation campaign under Sir John Hubert Marshall in 1921-22 and resulting in the discovery of the civilization at Harappa by Sir John Marshall, Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni and Madho Sarup Vats.

More Harappan seals were discovered in 1912 by John Faithfull Fleet, prompting an archaeological campaign under Sir John Hubert Marshall. Marshall, Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni and Madho Sarup Vats began excavating Harappa in 1921, finding buildings and artefacts indicative of an ancient civilisation.

The Harappan civilisation never had a chance with this Red soil. This is the reason why Copper was used for almost all purpose, because it is available and Iron was not known to them because they are not exposed.

Trimurti was not worshipped by the Indus valley people.

It is generally believed that economy of the Harappan people was mainly based on external trade. It is true to the extent that the Harappan urban centres were supported by the external trade but actually agriculture was the backbone of the civilization.

Cow has not been found in the excavation in Terracotta of Indus Valley sites. Cow was related to vedic culture not from Indus civilization.

According to the ASI, Lothal had the world's earliest known dock, which connected the city to an ancient course of the Sabarmati river on the trade route between Harappan cities in Sindh and the peninsula of Saurashtra when the surrounding Kutch desert of today was a part of the Arabian Sea.

The town-planning of Harappan culture is one of its most impressive aspects, as though it was the handiwork of a genius of an architect. Immaculate was the arrangement of the city. In every aspect like roads, houses, drainage, bath, granary, the Harappan people have left an imprint of originality and brilliance.

7 layers of Mohenjo-daro were found.

Though the reason of the decline is not known, but through excavations it is clear that fall of the Harappan Civilization occurred between 1800 BC to 1700 BC. It is commonly believed that the Aryans were the next settlers.

After the partition of India, the largest number of Harappan towns and settlements have been found in Gujarat.

Chalcolithic, which means the copper-stone phase. The Chalcolithic cultures followed the Bronze Age Harappa culture.

The types of crops that the Indus Civilization had was wheat, barley, peas, lentils, linseed, and mustard. Experts say that they might have grown cotton in the summer. They did not grow rice because it didn't grow well where they lived, but they did find white rice and fed it to their animals.

Lothal situated in Gujarat was excavated by S.R.Rao in the year 1957. This town of Indus Valley Civilisation is located on the bank of river Bhagava in Gujarat. The city located beside a tributary of the Sabarmati, in Gujarat which is close to the Gulf of Khambat.

The most striking feature of this Harappan civilization (Indus Valley Civilization) is that the Indus Valley people had constructed their drainage system on very scientific lines. The drainage system of Mohen-jo-daro is so elaborate that “the like of which has not yet been found anywhere in the world in any other city of the same antiquity".

The dominant sight at Lothal is the massive dockyard which has helped make this place so important to international archaeology.

Cow was absent in the terracottas of the Indus civilization. The terracotta figurines excavated at Harappan site had images of oxen, buffaloes, pigs, goat, sheep and humpes bull. Cow was famous in vedic culture.

The Indus Valley Civilization has its earliest roots in cultures such as that of Mehrgarh, approximately 6000 BC. The two greatest cities, Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, emerged circa 2600 BC along the Indus River valley in Punjab and Sindh.

The Indus Valley Civilization contained more than 1,000 cities and settlements. These cities contained well-organized wastewater drainage systems, trash collection systems, and possibly even public granaries and baths. Although there were large walls and citadels, there is no evidence of monuments, palaces, or temples. The uniformity of Harappan artifacts suggests some form of authority and governance to regulate seals, weights, and bricks.

One of the most remarkable features of the Indus valley civilization is that the city was provided with an excellent closed drainage system. Each house had its own drainage and soak pit which was connected to the public drainage. Brick laid channels flowed through every street. They were covered and had manholes at intervals for cleaning and clearing purposes. Large brick culverts with corbelled roofs were constructed on the outskirts of the city to carry excess water. Thus Indus people had a perfect underground drainage system. No other contemporary civilization gave so much attention to cleanliness.

Sutkagan Dor (or Sutkagen Dor) is the westernmost known archaeological site of the Indus Valley Civilization. It is located about 480 km west of Karachi on the Makran coast near Gwadar, close to the Iranian border, in Pakistan's Baluchistan Province. The site is near the western bank of the Dasht River and its confluence with a smaller stream, known as the Gajo Kaur. It was a smaller settlement with substantial stone walls and gateways.

It is located in Punjab Province, Pakistan, on an old bank / bed of the River Ravi.

Chanhudaro is one of the most important sites of Indus Civilization. More than 2500 sites belonging to Indus Civilization are identified so far and Chanhudaro is one of the bigger sites where lot of scope is identified for excavation. However, of late, excavations in this site have not been in progress leading to a decline in contributions from this site.

As in most other contemporary civilizations, agriculture was the backbone of the Indus economy. The people made extensive use of the wooden plows. Barley and wheat were the main food crops. Agriculture sustained the rudimentary urban centers that emerged.

Farmers in the Indus valley were the first to spin and weave cotton. In 1929 archaeologists recovered fragments of cotton textiles at Mohenjo-Daro, in what is now Pakistan, dating to between 3250 and 2750 BCE. Cottonseeds founds at nearby Mehrgarh have been dated to 5000 BCE. Literary references further point to the ancient nature of the subcontinent's cotton industry. The Vedic scriptures, composed between 1500 and 1200 BCE allude to cotton spinning and weaving.

The first extensive excavations at Harappa were started by Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni in 1920.

The Great Bath is one of the best-known structures among the ruins of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization at Mohenjo-daro in Sindh, Pakistan.

Cotton was one of the most important product of the Indus Valley trade. Their wealth was based on a subsistence economy of wheat and barley. Indus people were first to grow cotton in the world.