What has been found from the Indus Valley?

Most of what we know about the Indus people is from art and well-crafted items that have been found. They made toys and small figures of people and animals, using metal and clay.

• The Indus people made incredible jewellery. These pieces are made from gold and agate (a coloured mineral stone).

• Indus traders carried bangles and ear studs, like these, in their trading packs.

• Indus potters made plain everyday pots, and fine decorated pots like this one.
• The top half of the pot is decorated with painted birds.

• The Indus people wrote on soft clay using pointed sticks or by scratching marks onto stone and metal.

• People wrote the first line from right to left, the second line from left to right, and so on.

• Indus Valley writing used at least 400 picture-signs.

• They were not letters like in our alphabet.

• The longest bit of writing found has only 26 characters.

• No one knows what language the Indus people spoke, and no one has yet been able to read their writing.

• Pictures on seals and other artefacts show what look like figures of gods.
• The pipal or fig tree is shown on many seals, and is still a sacred tree for many Buddhists and Hindus.
• Many people believe the 'great bath' found in Mohenjo-Daro suggests the Indus people held beliefs about purity.
• Some people think that the Indus religion shaped early Hindu beliefs.

• Indus Valley people were buried with clay pots and clay figures, as well as beads.

• Putting these items in graves may mean that they believed in life after death.

• This would mean they could use these belongings again.