Samacheer Class 6 Social Science - Indus Civilisation

(b) Houses were made burnt brick.
(d) Greal Bath was made water tight with thc laye of natural bitnmen.

Gold and Silver were used to make ornaments.
They used copper and bronze to make weapons and vessels.
Bronze was used to make statues. ( Example: Statue of a dancing girl.)

In the river valleys, the soil is fertile.
Freshwater is available for drinking, watering livestock, and irrigation.
Easy movement of people and goods is possible.
So people settled in the river valleys. Many civilizations flourished on river valleys. Florence river valleys are called cradles of civilization.

I like the drainage system very much.
Most of the drains were covered with slabs or bricks. Even after nearly 5000 years many of the modern cities don’t have covered drains.
It is said that each house had its own soak pit, which collected all the sediments and allowed only the water to flow into the street drain. I like this system very much.

To see under the ground, the archaeologists may uSe a magnetic scanner.
The presence and absence of archaeological remains can be detected by the Radar and Remote Sensing Method.

They had well-covered drains. The drains were covered with slabs or bricks,
Each drain had a gentle slope, so that water could flow.
Manholes were provided at regular intervals to clear the drains.
House drains passed below many lanes before finally emptying into the drains.
Every house had its own soak pit, which collected all the sediments and allowed only the water to flow into the street drain.

The Great Bath is one of the earliest public tanks.
It is a waterproof structure.
The bath was lined with bricks.
It was made watertight using layers of natural bitumen.
There were rooms on three sides.
The water was drained after use.
There were steps on both sides of the pool.

King Naram – the sin of the Akkadian empire has written about buying jewellery from the land of Melukha which is a region of the Indus valley.
The same types of seals found in Mesopotamia have been also found in the Indus area.
A naval dockyard has been discovered in Lothal in Gujarat. All these things show that the Indus people traded with other countries.

(a) Lamp post:
In the Indus cities, street lights were an important feature. The lamp posts were made of stones.
Now we have iron lamp posts and cement lamp posts.
(b) Burnt bricks:
The houses were built using burnt brick. The bricks were of uniform size.
The bricks were burnt because burnt bricks are strong, hard, durable, resistant to fire, and will not dissolve in water.
The present-day buildings are also constructed with burnt bricks.
(c) Underground drainage system:
The Indus cities had an underground drainage system. They were covered with slabs or bricks. Holes were provided at regular intervals to clean the drains.
Even in some of the modern cities, there is no underground drainage system. This system is being introduced gradually now. In Tamil Nadu, there is an underground drainage system almost in all the corporations.
(d) Weights and measurements:
Standardized weights and measures were used by the Indus valley people. They used sticks with marks to measure length.
Now we have various types of weighing machines and scales.
(e) Dockyard:
Lothal was a port in Gujarat. There was a naval dockyard in Lothal. It shows the maritime activities of the Indus people.
Now, dockyards are found almost in all ports. Apart from loading, unloading and repairing of ships new ships are built in these yards.
Example: Mazagaon dock at Mumbai.

Agriculture might have been their main occupation since they settled near the Indus river bank.
We find the terracotta plough which might have been used for agriculture.
They used granaries to store food grain.
A granary with walls made of mud, bricks, which are still in good condition, has been discovered in Rakhigarhi, a village in Haryana belonging to the Mature Harappan phase.

It shows that they know the art of making pottery.
The broken pieces of pottery have animal figures on them.
It shows that they reared various animals. It also shows their skill in painting.

The Dockyard at Lothal is considered as the first naval dockyard of the world,
It has favourable features in terms of height, width, and length compared to the modem dockyards of Mumbai and Visakhapatnam.
Boats of 60-75 tonnes capacity and 20-25 metres in length could enter Lothal DOCK.
It was designed in such a manner as to ensure berthing 20-30 boats, a fairly large size.
Large foreign and Indian ships could enter the harbour without any difficulty

The Harappans might have disappeared due to the following reasons.
Repeated floods.
Ecological changes.
Invasions.
Natural calamity.
Climatic changes.
Deforestation.
An epidemic.

Agriculture, handicrafts, pottery making, jewellery making, weaving, carpentry, and trading were practiced.
There were merchants, traders, and artisans.
They reared cattle and other animals.