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)
5.
The author would be most ██████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
Because the Indus ██████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ████████████ ██ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ██ ██████████ █████████ ███ █████ ██████ █████████████
An earthquake is
b
Only a disaster ██ ████████████ ██ ██ ██████████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ █ ████████████ ██ █████████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ █████████████
Too strong to be supported. The author never suggests that “only” a disaster as catastrophic as an earthquake could have caused the decline. Although some time of environmental disaster is “most likely,” this doesn’t mean the author thinks there must have been an environmental disaster.
c
Archaeologists' understanding of ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ████████████ █████ ███████ ████ █ ██████ ███ █████ ██ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████
d
The cities of ███ █████ ██████ ████████████ ██████ ████ ████ ██████ ████████ ███ ███ ███████████ ██ █ █████ ███████████
The author doesn’t suggest that anyone “should” have been more prepared. She doesn’t give an opinion about what the people should or should not have done.
e
The demise of ███ █████ ██████ ████████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ███████
A change to the course of rivers is