Children in the Indus Valley

What do these things look like?

 

These seem to be toys and games found in the Indus Valley by archaeologists. Do you recognize any of them?

There certainly seem to be dice and chess. These are two legacies of the Indus Valley, things that were passed down from them to us today, thousands of years later!

Archaeologists have even found moving toys, where you pull a string and a part on the toy moves. One toy that was found was monkeys that could slide down ropes. Other toys with moving parts were toys with wheels that could be pulled as well as baby rattles. Their toys would have reflected their culture, with a lot to do with animals, especially farm animals.

Children probably had lots of chores, as many tasks were required just to survive. Children would have been taught to work alongside their parents and to learn the things they did — cooking, hunting, farming, and making things.

We have to guess about a lot when it comes to their civilization. We know from other ancient civilizations that it would have been typical for most children to not go to school. This makes sense when you think about children working alongside their parents. The children of bead-makers wouldn’t have needed the reading skills of a scribe. A scribe was a recorder, they wrote down records.

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Where are some places the children would have played? It looks like they could play in the courtyards of the homes and on the roofs!

Picture credits:

City Entrance

Toy pictures found at skyscrapercity.com