Self-study
P1
Along with Egypt and Sumer, the third major early Bronze Age civilization was the Indus Valley civilization, which flourished from 2600 B.C. to 900 B.C. In geographic size, the Indus Valley civilization was the largest ancient urban civilization, bigger than pharaonic Egypt. ████████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ███ ███ ███ ███ █████████████ ██████ ██ █████████ █████ █████ ███████████ ██████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████████ ███ ████████████ ██████ ███
Intro to Topic ·
Indus Valley civilization
Important Bronze Age civilization. Details about where, when, what.
Concession / Main Point ·
Had been considered uninteresting but new evidence shows otherwise
Indus Valley civilization was "without parallel." This is likely the main point and the rest of the passage will try to support this position.
P2
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Premise ·
Unique urban infrastructure; interesting social, political, military structures
Masters of urban planning, built brick cities, had urban sewer system, little class distinction, democratic government, no military.
P3
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Premise ·
Innovative agriculture and masters of trade
First to cultivate rice and cotton, top traders with standardized weights.
P4
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Phenomenon ·
Why did the civilization decline?
Popular Hypothesis ·
Massacred by invaders
Wheeler's hypothesis is that Indo-Aryan invaders destroyed them but there is little written or archaeological evidence.
Counter Evidence ·
Indo-Aryans were not present at decline
Evidence ·
Resurgence in the south
Indus Valley civilization moved south?
Author’s Hypothesis ·
Catastrophic environmental causes for decline and relocation
Severe drought or massive earthquake.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
4.
Which one of the following ██ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ████ ████████ ████████ █████████ ███████
a
The Indus Valley ██ █ ███████████ ████████ ███████
This isn’t mentioned as something that directly counters Wheeler’s theory. The author notes that
b
There are no ████████ ████ ████████ ███████ ██████ ██████ ███ █████ ██████ ███████
c
There is evidence ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ████
This isn’t mentioned as something that directly counters Wheeler’s theory. The author mentions there is evidence of a drought, but this isn’t brought up as something that counters Wheeler’s theory.
d
No signs of ████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ████████████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ██████████ ██████
This isn’t mentioned as something that directly counters Wheeler’s theory. The author mentions there’s no sign of dominant rulers, but this isn’t mentioned as something that counters Wheeler’s theory.
e
The Indus Valley ██████ █████████ ████████████
This isn’t mentioned as something that directly counters Wheeler’s theory. The author mentions there’s that the civilization practiced agriculture, but this isn’t mentioned as something that counters Wheeler’s theory.