Bricks used in Harappan houses were made in which fixed ratio of length, breadth and thickness?
- A.1:2:4
- B.2:2:1
- C.4:2:1
- D.3:2:1
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, 4:2:1. A Harappan burnt brick was four units long, two units broad and one unit thick, and the same proportion turns up at sites hundreds of kilometres apart. This standardisation is one of the strongest arguments for a common authority or at least a shared set of rules across the civilisation, and it goes with the standard system of weights that runs in multiples of sixteen.
Option A, 1:2:4, is the same three numbers written backwards and is the commonest trap in this question; length is the largest of the three, so the ratio must begin with 4. Options B and D, 2:2:1 and 3:2:1, are simply wrong proportions and do not match any Harappan brick. Read the order of the words in the question stem carefully before choosing.
Read the full article: Indus Valley Civilisation: Sites, Town Planning and Decline
Practice Questions
View allThe Great Bath of the Indus Valley Civilisation was found at which site?
- A.Harappa
- B.Mohenjo-daro
- C.Lothal
- D.Kalibangan
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The Great Bath stands in the citadel of Mohenjo-daro in Sindh. It is a brick tank about twelve metres long and seven metres wide, with flights of steps at two ends, small rooms around it and a layer of natural tar below the floor to stop water from seeping away.
Read the full explanation →The only Harappan site with an artificial dockyard has been identified at which place?
- A.Lothal
- B.Surkotada
- C.Chanhudaro
- D.Banawali
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Lothal lies on the Bhogava, a tributary of the Sabarmati in Gujarat, and its eastern side holds a large brick basin connected to the river by a channel.
Read the full explanation →Harappa was excavated in 1921 by which archaeologist?
- A.R. D. Banerji
- B.Sir John Marshall
- C.Daya Ram Sahni
- D.Mortimer Wheeler
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He dug at Harappa on the bank of the Ravi in 1921, and the finds from that season identified a wholly unknown urban culture, which was named after the site.
Read the full explanation →Evidence of a ploughed field, the earliest in the subcontinent, was found at which Harappan site?
- A.Dholavira
- B.Kalibangan
- C.Rakhigarhi
- D.Alamgirpur
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Kalibangan stands on the dry bed of the Ghaggar in the Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan. A field there, belonging to the pre-Harappan level, carries two sets of furrows crossing each other at right angles, showing that two crops were grown in the same plot at the same time.
Read the full explanation →In Mesopotamian records, the Indus region was referred to by which name?
- A.Dilmun
- B.Magan
- C.Meluha
- D.Sindon
Show answer
Mesopotamian texts list Meluha among the lands that sent ships carrying carnelian beads, ivory, timber and copper, and the goods named there match what Harappan sites produced.
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