What where how and When?

This was possible because the rivers facilitated quick transportation system and hence quite effectively helped the trade to flourish. This encouraged the rural people to come to these areas and settle down. Moreover rivers provided a kind of natural defence and the kingdom was able to strengthen its position due to the availability of iron ore in the region.

Archaeology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis and interpretation of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, features, biofacts and landscapes.

India got its name from river Indus by Persians and Iranians.Indus is called Sindhu in Sanskrit. While the Arab traders gave the name Hindustan to the land beyond Indus.

Tributaries are smaller rivers that flow into a larger river, e.g. river Son is a tributary of river Ganga.

It is important to study about our past. It gives a lot of information regarding the political, social, economic and cultural life of the people in the earlier days. By studying about our past:

• We can find about the eating habits, the clothing and housing pattern of the people of the earlier times.
• We can gather information about the different occupations of those people. We can find about the lives of hunters, farmers, merchants, priest, craftsmen, musicians, poets and scientists.
• We can learn about the lives of children; the songs they sang, the plays they saw, the games that they played and the kind of toys with which they played.

Archaeologists have found tools, weapons, pots, pans, ornaments & coins of earlier people.

AD stands for two Latin words, ‘Anno Domini’, meaning 'in the year of the Lord' (i.e. Christ) . The year 2007, also written as AD 2007, means 2007 years after the birth of Christ. BC stands for 'Before Christ', meaning before the birth of Christ. For example, a time period written as 200 BC means 200 years before the birth of Christ. BC runs into countdown format as 10..,9..,8..,7..,........1.. upto the time of Jesus Christ's birth and after his birth it started to run in today's date format, i.e., 1..,2..,3....,onwards.

The people who systematically study things that were made and used in the past through process of exploration and excavation are called archaeologists. They study the remains of buildings made of stone & brick, paintings & sculpture. They also explore and excavate (dig under the surface of the earth) to find tools, weapons, pots, pans, ornaments, coins and various other articles used by them. Then they analyse their findings to give a new theory.

Men & women travelled from one place to another for the following reasons:

• In search of livelihood.
• To escape from natural disasters like flood or drought.
• Sometimes men marched in armies, conquering other's lands.
• Merchants travelled with caravans or ships, carrying valuables.
• Religious teachers walked from one place to another to offer instructions and advices on religion.
• Some people travelled to new & exciting places for adventure purposes.

People have lived along the banks of river Narmada for several hundred thousand years. They were skilled gatherers. They were aware of the vast wealth of the forest around them. They collected roots, fruits and other forest products for their food from these surrounding forests. They also hunted animals.

The word source refers to the information found from the manuscripts, inscriptions, coins and monuments. It helps the historians in the reconstruction of our past. These sources give a lot of information about the kings, their coronation, their extent of the empire, the battles they fought, their welfare measures etc. because they kept records of all what they did.

The scholars understand what is written in these inscriptions through the process called decipherment. Most of these inscriptions were written several hundred years ago and languages and the script used in the inscriptions have changed with time. One good example of decipherment is of the Rosetta stone found in Egypt which was used to decipher ancient Egyptian using Greek language.

In the earlier times, writings were done on relatively hard surface such as backed clay, stone or metal. Since these objects were imperishable these writings usually survived for a long time.

South Asia is often called a sub-continent because although it is smaller than a continent, it is very large and is separated from the rest of Asia by seas, hills and mountains. It is a home to over one-fifth of the world’s population.

Three different languages and scripts were used in the inscriptions found from the Rosetta town. These were Greek and two forms of Egyptian.

The earliest cities flourished on the banks of the river Indus. Later, about 2500 years ago, cities developed on the banks of the river Ganga and its tributaries and along the seacoasts.

Archaeologists studied the bones of animals, birds and fish to identify the eating habits of the people in the past. Although plant remains survive far more rarely. But if seeds of grains or pieces of woods would have been burnt, they would have survived in a charred form. So finding charred seeds give information that they ate plant produce also.

Manuscripts are a very important source to know about our past. They were usually written on the palm leaf or on the bark of a tree, by hand. The palm leaves or the bark of a tree were cut into pages and tied together to make books. These books deal with varied subjects such as, science, medicine, religious beliefs and practices and lives of kings. Besides, there were epics, poems and plays. The language used in the manuscripts was Sanskrit, Prakrit and Tamil.

The word ‘Pasts’ is used in plural to draw attention to the fact that the past was different for different groups of people. For example, the lives of kings and queens were different from those of peasants and herdsmen, the lives of traders were different from those of crafts persons and so on. This fact is true even in the modern times. The life of people living in the Andaman Islands is very different from those living in the cities. Secondly, we know a lot about the kings and battles they fought because they recorded all their victories. We know very little about the lives of the ordinary people because they did not keep any record of what they did.

We know a great deal about the kings and the battles they fought because they kept records of what they did, such as, about their lives, victories, marriages, coronation to the throne etc.

An important difference between an inscription and a manuscript is the surface on which they are written. Inscriptions are engravings on hard surfaces while manuscripts are hand written books, which are usually written on palm leaves or the bark of a tree.