World History / Unit 1: Prehistory and Early River Valley Civilizations
1.5 The Indus Valley and Early China
Notes
Two more river valley civilizations grew in South Asia and East Asia.
- Indus Valley (Harappan) civilization (about 2600 to 1900 BCE) was along the Indus River in modern Pakistan and northwest India.
- Cities like Harappa and Mohenjo-daro had grid street plans, brick houses, standard weights and advanced drainage systems.
- Its script has not been deciphered, so much about its rulers and beliefs is unknown. It declined about 1900 BCE, possibly from climate change and river shifts.
- Early China grew along the Huang He (Yellow River), nicknamed "China's Sorrow" for its deadly floods.
- The Shang dynasty (about 1600 to 1046 BCE) used oracle bones to ask ancestors about the future; this writing is an ancestor of modern Chinese characters. They were skilled in bronze casting.
- The Zhou dynasty (1046 to 256 BCE) claimed the Mandate of Heaven: heaven granted the right to rule to a just ruler and could take it away.
- Dynastic cycle: a dynasty rises, declines, loses the Mandate (shown by disasters or revolts) and is replaced.
Practice
Why do historians know less about Indus Valley rulers than about Egyptian pharaohs?
Without readable texts, historians rely only on archaeology.
A Chinese emperor faces floods, famine and peasant revolts. Under the idea of the Mandate of Heaven, people might conclude that:
Disasters and unrest were seen as signs a ruler had lost the Mandate.
Which feature is most associated with Mohenjo-daro?
Indus cities were notable for their careful planning and sanitation.
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