The Indus Valley Mystery DBQ

What's included

• Student DBQ packet: hook, background reading, Documents A–F with analysis questions, evidence organizer, bucketing and outline pages, C-E-R essay and 4-point rubric
• Scaffolded version with shorter excerpts, plain-words versions and sentence starters
• Teacher presentation with speaker notes, plus a teacher guide with standards, pacing, answer key and a sample essay

The documents

• Document A: Masson finds a ruin (1842)
• Document B: Cunningham's unreadable seal (1875)
• Document C: "At a single bound" (1926 report)
• Document D: Streets, wells, and drains at Mohenjo-daro
• Document E: A connection to Mesopotamia
• Document F: What we know and what we don't (chart)

Document A: Charles Masson, Narrative of Various Journeys (1842), public domain. Document B: Alexander Cunningham, Archaeological Survey of India Report (1875), public domain. Documents C, D, and E: Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1923–24 (1926), public domain. Obvious scanning errors corrected. Document F: teacher-made chart from standard archaeological accounts.

Good to know

Class time

3 class periods

Format

Editable Google Slides

Answer key

Included

Standards: KAS Grade 6: 6.H.CE.1, 6.G.HE.1, 6.G.HI.2, 6.I.UE.2, 6.I.UE.3, 6.I.CC.1