NCERT Solutions Class 12 History Chapter 1 Bricks, Beads and Bones

Concept used. This is a subsistence question. The food list comes from charred plant remains studied by archaeo-botanists and from animal bones studied by archaeo-zoologists. To name the provider groups you reason from this evidence to the kinds of producers a city would have depended on.

The Harappans ate a wide range of plant and animal products, including fish.

1. Cereals and pulses: wheat, barley, lentil, chickpea and sesame. Millets are found at sites in Gujarat, while finds of rice are relatively rare.
2. Animal products: bones of cattle, sheep, goat, buffalo and pig show these animals were domesticated. Bones of wild species such as boar, deer and gharial are also found, along with the bones of fish and fowl.

These foods would have reached the cities from several producer groups:

• Farmers in the surrounding countryside grew the cereals, pulses and oilseeds.
• Pastoralists / herders supplied milk and meat from the domesticated cattle, sheep, goat and buffalo.
• Fisherfolk caught the fish and fowl found at the sites.
• Hunting communities may have supplied the meat of wild animals; we do not know whether the Harappans hunted these themselves or obtained meat through exchange.

Food: wheat, barley, lentil, chickpea, sesame, millets, rice; plus meat and milk of cattle, sheep, goat, buffalo, pig, and fish and fowl. Providers: farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolk and (for wild meat) hunting communities.

Concept used. Socio-economic difference means inequality of wealth or status between people. Archaeologists cannot read it directly (the script is undeciphered), so they infer it from two material strategies: the study of burials and the classification of artefacts into utilitarian objects and luxuries.

1. Studying burials. The dead were generally laid in pits. Sometimes the burial pit was lined with bricks, and some graves held pottery and ornaments (jewellery is found in burials of both men and women). At Harappa, an ornament of three shell rings, a jasper bead and hundreds of micro beads was found near the skull of a male.
2. Looking for "luxuries". Objects of daily use made cheaply from ordinary stone or clay (querns, pots, needles) are called utilitarian. Rare objects made from costly, non-local materials or with difficult techniques (such as faience pots) are treated as luxuries.
3. Mapping the spread. Rare valuable objects, like miniature faience pots, cluster in large cities such as Mohenjodaro and Harappa and are scarce in small settlements like Kalibangan. All the gold jewellery was recovered from hoards.

What they notice. The differences are real but modest. Burials show some variation but, on the whole, the Harappans did not bury great wealth with the dead (unlike the Egyptian pyramids). The clearest gap is between big cities and small settlements in who owned rare luxury goods.

They use burials and the utilitarian-versus-luxury classification of artefacts. They notice only modest differences: little wealth buried with the dead, but rare luxury goods (faience, gold from hoards) concentrated in the big cities.

Concept used. This is an argument question: you must take a clear position (Yes) and defend it with evidence. Town planning means a settlement built to a deliberate design rather than growing at random. The drainage system is strong evidence for such planning.

Yes, the drainage system clearly indicates town planning. The reasons:

1. Streets and drains came first. Roads and streets in the Lower Town were laid out on a rough "grid", intersecting at right angles. Streets with drains were laid out first, and houses were built along them afterwards. Planning the network before the houses is the heart of town planning.
2. Every house was tied to the system. Because waste water had to flow into the street drains, every house needed at least one wall along a street. House drains first emptied into a sump or cesspit where solid matter settled, and only the waste water flowed on into the street drains.
3. The drains were engineered. Channels were made of bricks set in mortar and covered with loose bricks (sometimes limestone) that could be lifted for cleaning. Long channels had sumps at intervals for cleaning. Mackay called it "the most complete ancient system as yet discovered".
4. It was a shared standard, not a one-off. Drains were not unique to the big cities; even at small Lothal, houses were of mud brick but the drains were built of burnt brick.

Yes. The grid streets with drains laid before the houses, every home connected through sumps to covered, cleanable brick channels, and the same standard reaching even small sites like Lothal, all show deliberate town planning.

Concept used. Craft production at sites like Chanhudaro included bead-making. The answer has two clear parts: a list of the raw materials, and a step-by-step account of making one bead (carnelian is the clearest example because the chapter describes its process in full).

Materials used for beads:

• Stones: carnelian (a beautiful red), jasper, crystal, quartz and steatite.
• Metals: copper, bronze and gold.
• Other materials: shell, faience, and terracotta (burnt clay).

Some beads combined two or more stones cemented together, or stone with gold caps. Shapes included disc, cylindrical, spherical, barrel-shaped and segmented, decorated by incising, painting or etching.

Making a carnelian bead:

1. The red colour of carnelian was obtained by firing the yellowish raw material (and the beads) at various stages of production.
2. Nodules were chipped into rough shapes.
3. They were then finely flaked into the final form.
4. Grinding, polishing and drilling completed the process. Specialised drills have been found at Chanhudaro, Lothal and Dholavira.

Materials: carnelian, jasper, crystal, quartz, steatite, copper, bronze, gold, shell, faience and terracotta. Carnelian bead: fire the raw material for colour, chip the nodule, finely flake it to shape, then grind, polish and drill.

Concept used. This is a source-based (figure) question: you answer only from what the photograph shows, plus what the chapter says about Harappan burials. Read the image methodically, body, then objects, then any ornaments, then sex.

1. What you see / how the body is placed. A human skeleton is laid out full length in a burial pit. The body lies on its back (supine), stretched out, in the manner the chapter describes for Harappan pit burials.
2. Objects placed near it. A number of pottery vessels (pots) are placed near the head and upper body. Such grave pottery may reflect a belief that these vessels could be used in the afterlife.
3. Artefacts on the body. There are no clear ornaments or jewellery visible on the skeleton in this image. The chapter notes that on the whole the Harappans did not bury precious things with the dead, though jewellery is sometimes found in burials.
4. Sex of the skeleton. The objects (mainly pots) do not indicate the sex. In Harappan burials jewellery is found with both men and women, so grave goods cannot fix the sex; that needs skeletal (osteological) study, not the pots.

A skeleton lies extended on its back in a pit, with pottery vessels placed near the head. No ornaments are clearly visible on the body, and the grave goods do not reveal the skeleton's sex (jewellery occurs with both men and women), so sex cannot be told from the objects.

Concept used. Mohenjodaro is the best-preserved Harappan city and the model for a planned urban centre. A "distinctive features" essay should move through the city in an orderly way: its two-part layout, the drains, the houses, and the special buildings on the Citadel.

1. A two-part, planned settlement. Mohenjodaro is divided into two sections: a smaller but higher part (the Citadel) and a much larger but lower part (the Lower Town). The Citadel is high because its buildings stood on mud-brick platforms, and it was walled, physically separated from the Lower Town. Putting the platforms in place alone has been estimated at four million person-days of labour, which shows large-scale organisation. Once platforms were laid, building was confined to fixed areas, so the settlement was planned first and then built.

2. Standardised bricks and a grid of streets. Bricks, whether sun-dried or baked, followed a fixed ratio (length and breadth four and two times the height) and were used at all Harappan sites. The Lower Town's roads and streets ran on an approximate "grid", intersecting at right angles.

3. A planned drainage system. Streets with drains were laid out first and houses built along them, so every house had at least one wall on a street to carry its waste water out. House drains ran through the wall into the covered street drains, which had removable covers and cleaning sumps.

4. Domestic architecture built for privacy. Many houses centred on a courtyard with rooms around it, used for cooking and weaving. There were no windows in the ground-level walls, and the main entrance did not give a direct view of the interior, showing a concern for privacy. Each house had its own brick-paved bathroom, many had staircases to an upper storey or roof, and there were perhaps about 700 wells in the city.

5. Special structures on the Citadel. The Citadel carried buildings for public purposes: a massive warehouse (its lower brick portion survives) and the famous Great Bath, a large watertight rectangular tank with steps on the north and south, a surrounding corridor, and a nearby building with eight bathrooms. Scholars think the Great Bath was meant for some kind of special ritual bath.

Mohenjodaro's distinctive features: a planned two-part layout (walled Citadel on platforms + larger Lower Town), standardised bricks and a grid of streets, a covered cleanable drainage system, courtyard houses built for privacy with their own bathrooms and wells, and special Citadel structures like the warehouse and the Great Bath.

Concept used. Craft production needed many raw materials, only some of which were locally available. The answer pairs a list of materials with the strategies of procurement the Harappans used to reach materials that lay outside the alluvial plain.

Raw materials required:

• Locally available: clay, found in the alluvial plain itself.
• From outside the plain: stone (carnelian, steatite, etc.), timber, metals (copper, gold), shell, and precious stones such as lapis lazuli.

How these materials were obtained:

1. Settling near the source. The Harappans set up settlements where a material was found: Nageshwar and Balakot near shell; Shortughai in far-off Afghanistan near the best lapis lazuli; and Lothal near sources of carnelian (Bharuch), steatite (south Rajasthan and north Gujarat) and metal (Rajasthan).
2. Sending expeditions. They sent expeditions to areas such as the Khetri region of Rajasthan (for copper) and south India (for gold). These expeditions made contact with local communities; finds of Harappan steatite micro beads in such areas hint at this contact. The Ganeshwar-Jodhpura culture of the Khetri area, rich in copper objects, may have supplied copper to the Harappans.
3. Long-distance trade overseas. Copper was probably also brought from Oman: both Omani and Harappan copper carry traces of nickel, suggesting a common origin, and a large Harappan jar coated with black clay has been found at Omani sites. Mesopotamian texts speak of copper from Magan (perhaps Oman) and of products from Meluhha (probably the Harappan region), including carnelian, lapis lazuli, copper, gold and wood.
4. Transport. Goods moved by bullock cart over land (terracotta toy carts survive), and along riverine routes on the Indus and its tributaries and by coastal and sea routes.

Materials: local clay, plus stone, timber, metals (copper, gold), shell and lapis lazuli from outside. Obtained by founding settlements at the source, sending expeditions (Khetri for copper, south India for gold), and overseas trade (Oman, Mesopotamia), moved by cart, river and sea.

Concept used. Because the Harappan script is undeciphered, the past is reconstructed not from texts but from material evidence, pottery, tools, ornaments, bones, buildings. Reconstruction is a chain: recover the remains, classify them, read their context, and interpret them with care.

1. What survives, and what does not. Organic materials (cloth, leather, wood, reeds) usually decay, especially in the tropics. What remains is stone, burnt clay (terracotta) and metal. Also, only broken or useless things were thrown away; valuable objects were recycled, so intact finds are accidental rather than typical.
2. Classifying finds. Archaeologists classify finds first by material (stone, clay, metal, bone, ivory) and then, more tricky, by function, deciding whether an object was a tool, an ornament, ritual, or several of these.
3. Using analogy and context. Function is judged partly by resemblance to present-day things (beads, querns, pots) and partly by the context of the find: was it in a house, a drain, a grave, a kiln? Indirect evidence is used too, such as judging clothing from depictions in sculpture.
4. Building frames of reference. The first Harappan seal could not be understood until there was a context to place it in, both its cultural sequence and a comparison with Mesopotamian finds.
5. Interpreting with caution, especially religion. Terracotta female figurines (read as mother goddesses), the "priest-king", the Great Bath, fire altars and "proto-Shiva" seals are all interpreted by moving "from the known to the unknown". This is reasonable for querns and pots but speculative for religious symbols, so conclusions stay open.

Archaeologists reconstruct the past from surviving material remains: they recover finds, classify them by material and function, read each find's context and present-day analogies, build frames of reference (e.g. comparison with Mesopotamia), and interpret cautiously, most of all for religion, where conclusions remain speculative.

Concept used. The chapter never proves who ruled the Harappans, so this essay works backwards: from the signs of complex organised decisions to the functions a ruling authority must have carried out, while noting the debate over whether there were rulers at all.

Evidence that some authority existed:

• The extraordinary uniformity of artefacts: pottery, seals, weights and especially bricks of a fixed ratio from Jammu to Gujarat.
• Mobilised labour for making bricks and building the massive walls and platforms.
• Settlements deliberately placed near sources of raw material.

Functions a ruler / authority may have performed:

1. Planning and public works: organising the platforms, walls, drainage and the layout of cities.
2. Enforcing standards: maintaining the uniform brick ratio, weights and seals across a huge region.
3. Mobilising and managing labour: gathering the workforce for brick-making and large constructions.
4. Controlling craft and trade: setting up settlements at raw- material sources and managing long-distance exchange.

The debate over rulers. A large building at Mohenjodaro was called a "palace", but yielded no spectacular finds; a stone statue is called the "priest-king" only because archaeologists knew Mesopotamian priest-kings, not because we know he ruled. So scholars disagree: some think Harappan society had no rulers and everybody was equal; some think there were several rulers (one for Mohenjodaro, one for Harappa, and so on); others argue for a single state, given the uniform artefacts, planned settlements and standard brick ratio.

If rulers existed, they likely planned public works, enforced the uniform standards (bricks, weights, seals), mobilised labour and oversaw craft and trade. But the evidence is indirect: scholars variously argue for no ruler, several rulers, or a single Harappan state.

Concept used. This is a map-work task. You apply the chapter's site evidence to Map 1 using three marks: a circle for agriculture, an X for craft production, and an R for raw materials. Below is the guide for which marks go where; on the actual Map 1 in your book, place each mark on the named site.

1. Circle (agriculture). Kalibangan (evidence of a ploughed field at Early Harappan levels) and Banawali (terracotta plough model); the Cholistan area also has plough models. Most Harappan sites had farming, so circle the major sites such as Harappa and Mohenjodaro too.
2. X (craft production). Chanhudaro (a tiny settlement almost wholly devoted to bead-making, shell-cutting, metal-working, seal-making and weight-making), Lothal and Dholavira (specialised drills for bead-making), and the large cities Mohenjodaro and Harappa, which also produced crafts.
3. R (raw materials). Nageshwar and Balakot (shell, near the coast), Shortughai in Afghanistan (lapis lazuli), Khetri in Rajasthan (copper) and south India / Kolar (gold); carnelian came from Bharuch and steatite from south Rajasthan and north Gujarat.

A handy concept map (use it to remember which site gets which mark):

Circle (agriculture): Kalibangan, Banawali, Harappa, Mohenjodaro. X (craft): Chanhudaro, Lothal, Dholavira, Harappa, Mohenjodaro. R (raw materials): Nageshwar, Balakot, Shortughai, Khetri.

Concept used. This is a project (museum visit). There is no single correct answer; you are marked on how well you observe and record real museum objects. The guide below shows how to plan the visit and structure the report.

1. Find a museum. Look for any local, state or national museum, for example the National Museum in Delhi or the site museum at Lothal, both mentioned in the chapter, or any nearby archaeology or heritage gallery.
2. Pick ten items and note three things for each. For every object record: (a) how old it is (the date or period on the label), (b) where it was found (the find-spot or site), and (c) why you think it is on display (rarity, fine craftsmanship, historical importance, or what it tells us about daily life).
3. Write the report. Add a short introduction (museum name, date of visit), then a table or list of your ten items with the three details, and a brief conclusion on what you learned.

Visit any local museum, choose ten objects, and for each note its age, find-spot and why it is displayed; present this as a short report with an introduction, a list or table of the ten items, and a conclusion.

Concept used. This is a project (comparison). You gather ten modern stone, metal and clay objects and set them beside Harappan objects from this chapter (querns, pottery, beads, copper tools, terracotta figurines) to see what has stayed the same and what has changed.

1. Collect ten present-day objects. Choose across all three materials, for example: stone (grinding stone, idol), metal (steel vessel, copper pot, coin, scissors), and clay (earthen pot, diya, terracotta toy, brick).
2. Match each to a Harappan counterpart. Compare your modern items with the chapter's pictures: the Harappan saddle quern with a modern grinding stone, Harappan painted pottery with an earthen pot, Harappan beads with present-day beads, and Harappan copper tools with modern metal tools.
3. Discuss similarities. Many basic forms continue: people still grind on stone, store in clay pots, wear beads and use metal tools. The same three materials are still in everyday use.
4. Discuss differences. Modern objects use new materials (steel, plastic) and machine-making; designs, finishes and uses have changed; mass production has replaced hand-crafting.

Collect ten modern stone, metal and clay objects, pair each with a Harappan picture from the chapter, and discuss the similarities (same materials and basic forms persist) and the differences (new materials and machine-made designs today).