GK Questions Compendium [Indus Valley Civilization]
1. What is the oldest name given to the Harappan/Indus Civilization?
The oldest known name is the Indus Civilization, first used by archaeologist John Marshall, referring to the Indus river near which early excavations occurred. Indus Valley Civilization is also used interchangeably due to the significance of that river system.
2. According to archaeological tradition, what is the most appropriate name for the Harappan/Indus Civilization?
The Harappan Civilization is considered most appropriate, named after the initial site excavated called Harappa in 1921. Harappan refers to many distinct urban centers sharing common artifacts, architecture, script, trade networks, and more across parts of ancient Northwestern India.
3. What is the most suitable name for the Harappan/Indus Civilization according to geographical point of view?
From a geographic standpoint, the Indus-Saraswati Civilization is most reflective of settlement patterns, as over 80% of known sites have been found along the now dry Saraswati river bed in addition to Indus river basin cities.
4. What is the most accepted time period for the Harappan/Indus Civilization?
Based on carbon dating of wood, charcoal, human and animal bones found at excavation sites, the timeframe of around 2500 BCE to 1700 BCE is widely accepted by archaeologists for the maturation and decline of this civilization.
5. Who was the first scholar to use the term “Indus Civilization”?
John Marshall, Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1902 to 1931, was the first to use “Indus Civilization” after extensive excavations revealed an advanced early culture centered around the Indus but spreading far beyond.
6. Which age does the Indus Civilization belong to?
The Bronze Age aptly characterizes this pre Iron Age civilization which mastered advanced metalsmithing, though the Chalcolithic or Copper/Stone Age spanning the transition from Neolithic stone tools to early metalworks preceded the peak of the Harappans.
7. Over which states/regions was the Indus Civilization spread?
Major urban or village complexes have been found in the borders of present-day Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, Western Uttar Pradesh, and Northern Maharasthra spanning Pakistan and Northwest India.
8. What axis do scholars believe represents the heartland of the Indus Civilization?
The heavily populated cluster of large city-sites along the Ghaggar-Harka river system flowing through modern Punjab and Haryana down to Cholistan is considered the core of this enigmatic civilization, including Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro etc.
9. What is the northern-most site of the Indus Civilization found so far?
The ancient city Ropar in Punjab district on the Sutlej River was long deemed the northernmost trace of the Indus people, but even further north is the more recently discovered Manda site near Jammu and Kashmir’s Chenab River.
10. What is the southern-most site of the Indus Civilization found so far?
The fortified outpost of Bhagatrav in Gujarat’s Kim River Basin was once thought to mark the southern extreme, but excavations in the 1950s and 60s revealed that Daimabad near Maharashtra’s Pravara River may be the farthest south at nearly 1000 km from Harappa.
11. What is the eastern-most site of the Indus Civilization?
The site known as Alamgirpur is located furthest east, in Western Uttar Pradesh’s Hindon River Basin near Delhi in India. Its strategic location suggests Indus Valley dwellers may have migrated there or traded with other contemporary cultures toward the Ganges plain.
12. What is the western-most site of the Indus Civilization?
Archaeological evidence indicates the seaport Sutkagen Dor on Pakistan’s Makran coastline next to Iran represents the westernmost extent of the Indus Civilization, situating them on the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf for maritime trade routes.
13. Which two sites are considered the capital cities of the Indus Civilization?
The two largest urban centers were Harappa in the north along Punjab’s Ravi River with elaborate fortifications, housing, granaries and craft workshops as well as the heavily planned Mohenjo-Daro further south in Sindh, possibly serving as twin capitals.
14. Which two sites are considered the port cities of the Indus Civilization?
Strategic access to maritime routes was held by Lothal in Gujarat and Sutkagen Dor in Baluchistan, both equipped with immense brick dockyards, warehouse storage, craftmaking facilities hinting at their significance as bustling Indian Ocean trade ports.
15. What are two common features of the major cities of the Indus Civilization?
Masterful hydraulic engineering is ubiquitous such as drainage systems, cisterns, and reservoirs like Great Bath at Mohenjo-Daro, as well as standardized urban planning designs based on grids of thoroughfares and hierarchical housing evident at Harappa, Chanhudaro and more.
16. At which Indus site have remains of a horse actually been found?
Surkotada in Kutch district of Gujarat is the only Indus Valley site where archaeological evidence confirms the presence of actual horse remains, presumably imported from Central Asia, though depictions are rare in seals and artwork of that culture.
17. What were the two main crops grown by the Indus people?
Wheat and barley constituted the primary grains cultivated by Harappans, as verified from grinding stones, storage jars, and microscopic phytoliths adhering to artifacts, while rice was grown in limited floodplains like Lothal and cotton later spread globally from the Indus Valley.
18. Which animal common in later Indian history is not depicted in Indus seals and artifacts?
The lion is conspicuously absent from the remarkably realistic faunal imagery engraved on seal stone blocks and molded on clay tablets, terracotta works and bronze sculptures, indicating its absence from Northwest India until migrations brought lions from Persia or Africa.
19. With which ancient region did the Indus people have extensive trade contacts?
Mesopotamia in modern day Iraq shares the closest proven trade relationship with the Indus Civilization as verified through impressed commercial seals, etched beads and vessels, as well as references in Sumerian tablets to a distant land called Meluhha supplying goods.
20. From where did the Indus people likely import gold?
Though gold artifacts are rare for an otherwise sophisticated metalsmithing culture, the presence of gold beads, foil, reed-shaped deposits and dust implies import from copper-rich Afghanistan, Kolar mines in Karnataka or Anatolian plateaus connected by the vast trade networks of land and sea.
21. What goods did the Indus people export to Mesopotamia and other regions?
Archaeological evidence confirms the Harappans exported cotton textiles, carved ornate beads, inlaid jewelry, fine pottery like painted ware, as well as agricultural products to Sumeria and regions like Northern Iran for minerals and resources not native to the Indus Valley.
22. What key technology was not known to the Indus people?
Remarkably, the otherwise technologically sophisticated Indus Civilization did not develop or acquire iron working skills, giving Mesopotamian and other cultures an advantage for tools, weapons and infrastructure until iron smelting processes were possibly later diffused through trade networks.
23. What was the name given to the Indus region by the Sumerians?
Cuneiform texts and tablets in Sumerian cities use the term ‘Meluhha’ in reference to the Harappan civilization centered around the Indus River, which was likely pronounced as ‘Me-lukhkha’ by Mesopotamian merchants and travelers of the era.
24. In which modern country were the Indus sites of Shatughai and Mundigak found?
Afghanistan is home to two main excavated settlements belonging to the Greater Indus Valley Tradition – Shatughai in the northern Kabul valley and Mundigak near the Kandahar region, revealing the eastward trade corridors beyond the Hindu Kush with artifacts common to Harappan sites.
25. What were Dilmun and Makan according to Sumerian texts?
Sumerian inscriptions reference Dilmun as a trading intermediary likely located in Arabian region of Bahrain and Makan on the Gulf of Oman coast as strategic waypoints for goods flowing between the advanced civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt and the vast Indus Valley network.
26. Where were Harappan seals found outside of the Indus region?
Impressions of etched Harappan seals have turned up remarkably distant at sites like Susa in Elam province near Persian Gulf, Ur and Lothal on Arabian Sea coast and possibly at Vr Eram on the Red Sea, proving the robust maritime and overland trade links between the Indus Valley and contemporaneous West Asian cultures.
27. What was cotton called by the ancient Greeks?
Writings by Greek historians note fine cotton textile and fabrics exported from the Indian subcontinent were referred to as “Sindon,” possibly derived from the Indus, used for luxury clothing, decorative hangings and anesthetic wound dressing around the Mediterranean.
28. What type of figurine is most commonly found at Indus sites?
Excavations have uncovered thousands of feminine terracotta figurines from Harappan sites interpreted as Mother Goddess icons representing Shakti, fertility and lifegiving attributes, presumably for household shrines expressing beliefs in Devi Puja that continue in various Hindu traditions.
29. Who proposed that the decline of the Indus Civilization was caused by Indra?
A contentious theory of famed British era archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler blamed nomadic Indo-Aryan tribes following Indra destroying the native non-Vedic Harappan culture, but was dismissed due to contradicting evidence, with climate change considered the more likely primary driver of its transformation.
30. What script has not yet been deciphered that was used by the Indus people?
The Indus Script remains undeciphered nearly a century since excavated seals and tablets bearing its cryptic symbols, restricted mostly to iconography and trade signatures. Debates continue whether Proto-Dravidian, Sanskritic or even non linguistic sign systems underlie the tantalizing enigma of this 3000 year old writing.