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
███ █████ ██████ ███████ ███████ ██ █████ █████████ █████ █████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ████████ ████ █████ ██ █████ ████████ ███████ ███ ███ █████ █████ █████ ████████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ██████ ████ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ███████ ██████ ████████ ████ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ████████████ ██████████ ████ █████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ███████████ ███ ████████████ ████ ██████████ ███████ ███████ ██████████████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ██ ██████ ███████████
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
███ █████ ██████ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ █████████ █ █████████ █████████ ████████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ █████ ██ █████████ ███ █████ ██████ ████████████ ███ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████████ ███████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ████ ███████ ██████ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████ ███████ █████████ ██ ████ ████ ███████ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ██████ ██████ ██████████ █████ ████ ████████████
Premise ·
Innovative agriculture and masters of trade
First to cultivate rice and cotton, top traders with standardized weights.
P4
███ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████████ ████████ ████████ ███ ███ ████████ ███ ████ ███ ████████ ███ ████ ██████████ █████ █████████ ███
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)
6.
The author would be most ██████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████ █████ ██████████████ ██████████████ ████ ███ █████ ██████ █████████████
a
Archaeological data on ███ ████████████ ████ ██████████ ██ █ █████ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ █████████ ████████████
Not supported. We have no reason to think the author believes a “small group” of scholars has controlled information about the Indust Valley civilization.
b
It is only ██ ██████ █████ ████ ████████ ████ ████████ ████████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ████████ ███████████ █████████ ███ █████████████
c
The Sumerian tablets ████ ███████ ████████ ██ █████ ████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ███ ████ █████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ████████
Not supported, because it’s too strong. We don’t know that those tablets are “the only” known references to the Indus Valley civilization in ancient written records.
d
While an adequate ██████ ██ ██████████████ ████ ██ ███ ████████████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ██ ██ ███ ████ ███████████████
The author doesn’t suggest that “most” (over half) of evidence about the Indus Valley civilization has been misinterpreted. Although recent research may show that some scholars’ views are wrong, this doesn’t imply that anyone has misinterpreted existing evidence. New evidence may have come along that scholars were not previously aware of.
e
The most recent ██████████████ ██████████████ ████ ███ ████████████ ███ ████ ██ █ ███████ █████ ██ ███████████ ██ █████ ████████████ ██ ███████ █████████
We have no evidence that there’s a broader trend in archaeology to avoid overreliance on written evidence.