The decline of Harappan (or Indus Valley) society has been argued to be the result of foreign invasion, based upon ________________________.

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The question asks about the basis for the argument that the decline of Harappan (Indus Valley) society was due to foreign invasion, caused by a specific type of evidence. 
Option 1: Evidence of warfare and building destruction at many sites. This type of archaeological pattern is commonly cited in invasion-based explanations, as it points to violent conflict and occupational disruption across multiple settlements, which can be interpreted as a sign of external aggression.
Option 2: Written descriptions of a “distant conflict” found in Sumeria. While there are ancient Mesopotamian texts mentioning conflicts with various groups, there is no well-established, direct, contemporary textual record in Sumerian or Akkadian that documents an invasion of the Indus Valley by outsiders in a way that historians rely on for Harappan decline, making this option less convincing as a basis for the invasion claim.
Option 3: A series of skeletons referred to as “The Mohenjo-Daro massacre.” The name suggests a sensational narrative, but mainstream archaeology does not rely on a single labeled mass-skeleton event to support an invasion hypothesis. Isolated massacre tales are not a robust, widespread dataset across Harappan sites.
Option 4: Evidence for non-local weaponry, such as arrowheads, at many sites. While finds of non-local items can indicate contact or trade networks, they do not by themselves establish that foreign invasion caused decline; such artifacts could reflect exchange, mobility, or diffuse cultural contact rather than organized invasion.
Option 5: Written descriptions of a “great conflict” found on tablets at Mohenjo-Daro. There are no Mohenjo-Daro tablets with such explicit descriptions; the Indus script remains undeciphered, and claims of tablet descriptions of a great conflict are not supported by widely accepted evidence in the scholarly record, making this option untenable.
In sum, the option that most directly aligns with a classic invasion-based argument by pointing to widespread evidence of warfare and destruction across multiple Harappan sites is Option 1. The other options either rely on dubious or unsupported textual claims, rely on material evidence that could be interpreted in non-invasion ways, or rest on inconclusive or nonexistent sources. Each incorrect choice highlights a common misconception: that textual records exist where they do not, that isolated finds prove systemic invasion, or that non-local artifacts alone confirm invasion without a broader destruction pattern.

ARCH100 OL01 Midterm Exam # 2 - March 17-23, 2025

The decline of Harappan (or Indus Valley) society has been argued to be the result of foreign invasion, based upon ________________________.

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