The Indus Valley: planned cities, drains and an unread script

Grade 6 Social Studies Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   What can we know, and what can we not? (cards A to D). Card A, the Indus script, in our words: by 1992 about 4,000 inscribed objects, mostly seals, had been found. The inscriptions are short, about five signs on average. Nobody has read the script, and the language is unknown. Card B, weights, in our words: stone weights found in different Indus cities follow a regular pattern and match from city to city. Some scholars think a central authority set the standard. Card C, the basin at Lothal, in our words: archaeologists at Lothal, in Gujarat, found a large brick basin. Salt, gypsum and tiny sea fossils were found inside it. Scholars disagree about whether it was a dock for boats or a tank for water. Card D, a comparison: the Rosetta Stone, found in 1799, carries one text in three scripts, including Greek, which scholars could read. Jean-Francois Champollion announced his reading of Egyptian hieroglyphs in 1822.

2. 1.

   Card A says about 4,000 objects carry inscriptions of about five signs each. About how many signs is that in all, Ari asks?

   • About 4,005 signs
   • About 20,000 signs
   • About 800 signs
   • About 2,000 signs
3. 2.

   Card D says the Greek text on the Rosetta Stone helped scholars read hieroglyphs. Which find would most help scholars read the Indus script, Bo asks?

   • Another stone weight dug up in a different city of the civilization
   • A long text with Indus signs beside the same text in a known script
   • A book written much later that says the script was already read
   • A great many more short seals dug up in the same Indus city
4. 3.

   Card B says the weights match from city to city and some scholars think a central authority set the standard. What does the evidence show, Esme asks?

   • A central authority set the standard, and that is now fully proven
   • One city made the weights and shipped them to the others
   • The weights match by chance, so there was no shared standard
   • A shared standard existed, but the weights do not say who set it
5. 4.

   Some scholars read the Lothal basin as a dock. Others read it as a water tank. What do the two readings share, Jun asks?

   • The same finds, read in different ways about what the basin was for
   • Both agree it was a dock and differ about how old it is
   • The dock reading alone uses finds that came from the site itself
   • Both are guesses that no evidence can be used to support
6. 5.

   Card C says scholars disagree whether the Lothal basin was a dock or a tank. Which find would best support the dock reading, Kira asks?

   • More salt found inside the basin, beyond what card C reports
   • A channel that joined the basin to a river or the sea
   • A second basin of the same kind found in another Indus city
   • A modern drawing of how the basin might have looked as a dock
7. 6.

   Cards A and B come from Indus sites, and no Indus writing can be read to check them. How can scholars test a claim, Luz asks?

   • Wait until the script is read before saying anything about the cities
   • Rely on the weights alone, because they are the clearest evidence we have
   • Compare it with other kinds of evidence, such as objects and outside records
   • Accept whichever claim the largest number of scholars repeat
8. 7.

   Card B says the weights match across cities. If a central authority had set the standard, which result would follow, Milo asks?

   • Each city would have a different system of weights of its own
   • Weights in each city would follow the same pattern
   • The largest of the cities would have weights of any kind
   • The weights would carry readable writing naming the authority
9. 8.

   Card D says the Rosetta Stone was found in 1799 and Champollion announced his reading in 1822. How many years passed between the find and the reading, Noah asks?

   • 23 years
   • 2 years
   • 123 years
   • 33 years
10. 9.

    Card C says the basin held salt, gypsum and tiny sea fossils. Which claim does that find support, Pia asks?

    • The basin has been proven to be a dock for boats on the sea
    • The basin was built long after the Indus cities had ended
    • The basin held fresh water from the nearby river
    • The basin may have been linked to salty or marine water
11. 10.

    A museum label says "The Indus script remains unread." Why is that a careful sentence, Ren asks?

    • It tells visitors that the script cannot be read by anyone
    • It says clearly what is not known instead of guessing
    • It shows that the museum does not own any Indus objects
    • It hides the fact that scholars have not really tried to read it