Home Life in the Indus Valley

Here’s an image of life in the Indus Valley. What do you see?

city

It looks like that might be a drain coming out of the city in the middle of the picture. There’s a woman carrying a pot on her head. What do you think is inside?

What do you observe in this picture?

Indus_Valley_Civilization_-_Science_and_Technology_Heritage_of_India_Gallery_-_Science_Exploration_Hall_-_Science_City_-_Kolkata_2016-02-22_0508

This is a museum display. It show a market place. Do you think the man is selling clay pots? It looks like the woman is selling some small statues, maybe even a toy like this one.

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While most people would have been poor, even a poor family would have had a home behind a wall which included a courtyard.

Who would have lived in a home like this?

interior room with stair case and ceiling beams    house plan with many rooms

 

In the ruins that have been found, we can only see one floor of homes, but stairs suggest that there were upper floors.

In the first picture at the top of the page, did you notice the flat roofs? People could work, eat, and sleep on the roof. People still do this today. Many in our neighborhood in Turkey slept on the roof. We ate on our roof. Why? In the summer it was a cool place to be in the evenings and overnight.

Archaeologists have dug up jewelry that was used in the Indus Valley such as this bracelet.

bangle

Families would have animals in their courtyards and wealthier families would have their own well.

 

Picture credits:

City Entrance

Bracelet

House plan and interior

Display

Biswarup Ganguly [CC BY 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons