General Knowledge · Class 9 · History and people
Early civilisations of the world
There are 60 minutes in an hour, not 100. We owe that to people who lived more than 4,000 years ago. Who were they?
Small test at the end: scroll down to the end of this page for five short questions that check what you have learnt. Tap an answer, then press Check answer. Go to the questions ↓
Jump to: Read first · Try it away from the screen · Check it yourself · Check yourself · For teachers
Read first
6 facts. The questions below make you use them, not just remember them.
- The earliest cities grew beside rivers: Mesopotamia on the Tigris and Euphrates (today's Iraq), Egypt on the Nile, the Harappan cities on the Indus and Ghaggar, and China on the Yellow River.
- Rivers gave water for drinking and farming, rich soil after floods, and an easy way to carry goods by boat.
- Writing began in Mesopotamia more than 5,000 years ago, pressed into clay tablets (cuneiform). The Harappan script has still not been read.
- Egyptian hieroglyphs were read again in 1822, when Jean-François Champollion used the Rosetta Stone. It has the same message in three scripts, including Greek, which scholars could already read.
- The Mesopotamians counted in sixties. That is why an hour has 60 minutes, a minute has 60 seconds and a circle has 360 degrees.
- Harappan seals have been found in Mesopotamia, showing that the two peoples traded. Dholavira in Gujarat, a Harappan city with great water reservoirs, became a UNESCO site in 2021.
Offline
Try it away from the screen
Make your own "seal": carve a simple animal and three symbols into a bar of soap or a lump of clay, then press it into soft dough. What would someone in 4,000 years guess about you from it?
Make it on paper. Keep it with you. Nothing to upload.
Check it yourself
Ancient history has many "mysteries" online, such as aliens building pyramids. Ask what evidence an archaeologist would need, and check what museums such as the British Museum or the ASI say.
Check yourself
Five questions about what this page teaches. Choose an answer and press Check answer, or open "See the answer and why". Nothing is saved or sent: your choices stay on this screen and disappear when you leave or reload the page.
How do you want to answer? You choose, and you can change at any time.
See the answer and why
- A. Rivers gave water, rich soil and an easy way to move goods Correct. Yes. All three helped farming and trade.
- B. People liked the sound of running water Not this one. The reasons were practical: water, soil and transport.
- C. There was no land away from rivers Not this one. There was plenty of land, but much of it was too dry to farm.
- D. Rivers kept away every kind of disease Not this one. Rivers could also spread disease. Water and soil were the reasons.
See the answer and why
- A. An Egyptian priest explained it Not this one. No one alive could read hieroglyphs by then.
- B. It had the same text in Greek, which they could read Correct. Yes. Comparing the scripts unlocked the hieroglyphs.
- C. It had a dictionary carved on the back, with every word Not this one. There was no dictionary. The same message in three scripts was the key.
- D. It had pictures of everyday objects Not this one. Hieroglyphs look like pictures, but many stand for sounds.
See the answer and why
- A. 180 Not this one. That is minutes. Multiply by 60 again for seconds.
- B. 3,600 Not this one. That is the number of seconds in one hour.
- C. 1,080 Not this one. Check the zeros: 180 × 60 is 10,800.
- D. 10,800 Correct. Yes. 3 × 60 = 180 minutes, and 180 × 60 = 10,800 seconds.
See the answer and why
- A. The Harappans ruled Mesopotamia Not this one. There is no evidence of Harappan rule there. Trade explains it.
- B. Mesopotamians invented the Harappan script Not this one. The script is Harappan and still unread.
- C. The seals were made in Mesopotamia and copied Not this one. Their style and script are Harappan.
- D. The two peoples traded with each other Correct. Yes. Seals were used to mark goods.
See the answer and why
- A. Mesopotamia Not this one. Cuneiform was deciphered in the 1800s.
- B. The Harappan (Indus) civilisation Correct. Yes. Short texts and no bilingual "key" make it very hard.
- C. Ancient China Not this one. Early Chinese writing is the ancestor of today's Chinese characters.
- D. Ancient Egypt, with its hieroglyphs Not this one. Hieroglyphs were read in 1822 using the Rosetta Stone.
For teachers and grown-upsWhere the facts come from, and how to use this round.
Sources and notes
- Dholavira: UNESCO World Heritage Site, July 2021. Rosetta Stone (196 BCE): hieroglyphic, Demotic and Greek; British Museum.
- See NCERT Class 11 Themes in World History and Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I.