History & Civics
Swasti sees the Harappan script written on a seal. She wonders why historians have not been able to decipher such simple pictures. She concludes that the Harappan script must be very advanced and complex.
(a) What assumption is Swasti making about the Harappan script?
(b) Explain why this assumption might be incorrect.
Harappan Civilisation
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Answer
(a) Swasti is assuming that the Harappan script is advanced and complex because historians have not been able to understand or decipher the simple pictures on the seals.
(b) This assumption might be incorrect because historians have not been able to decipher the Harappan script mainly because the script is very short and pictographic, usually with only a few symbols, and there is no bilingual inscription to help understand its meaning. So, the difficulty in reading the script is not necessarily because it is complex, but because there is not enough information to decode it.
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Related Questions
What do you know about the Harappan script?
State three causes for the decline of the Harappan Civilisation.
Which of the following statements might best explain why changes in the course of the river Indus led to the decline of the Indus Valley Civilisation?
- The wild animals moved away to find another source of water and there was nothing left to hunt for the Indus Valley people.
- The land was left dry and infertile, and not fit for agriculture.
- New plants that required less water began to grow in the region, and the Indus Valley people did not have knowledge about these plants.
This is a picture of a fragment of an artefact found at one of the Harappan sites.
(a) What kind of material is the artefact made of?
(b) What kind of an artefact does this fragment belong to?
(c) What can you tell about the craft skills of the Indus people by looking at the fragment?