History2 Civilization2.1 Artifacts3 Current UNESCO Status4 See also5 References6 External links//
History
Mohenjo-daro was built around
2600 BC, and was abandoned around
1700 BC. It was rediscovered in the
1920s by Sir
John Marshall's
archaeologists. His car is still in the Mohenjo-daro museum, showing his presence, struggle, and dedication for Mohenjo-daro. Further excavations were carried out in
1945 by
Ahmad Hasan Dani and
Mortimer Wheeler. Mohenjo-daro in ancient times was most likely the administrative center of the ancient
Indus Valley Civilization. It was the most developed and advanced city in
South Asia during its peak. The planning and engineering showed the importance of the city to the people of the Indus valley.
[1]Location of
Indus Valley.
The
Indus Valley Civilization (c. 3300–1700 BC, flowered 2600–1900 BCE), abbreviated IVC, was an ancient
riverine civilization that flourished in the
Indus river valley in Pakistan and north-west India. Another name for this civilization is the "Harappan Civilisation".
The Indus Valley civilization was one of the most ancient civilizations, on the banks of
Indus River. The Indus culture blossomed over the centuries and gave rise to the Indus Valley Civilization around 3000 BCE. The civilization spanned much of Pakistan, but suddenly went into decline around 1800 BCE. Indus Civilization settlements spread as far south as the
Arabian Sea coast of India, as far west as the
Iranian border, and as far north as the
Himalayas. Among the settlements were the major urban centers of
Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, as well as
Lothal.
The Mohenjo-daro ruins were once the center of this ancient society. At its peak, some archaeologists opine that the Indus Civilization may have had a population of well over five million.
To date, over a thousand cities and settlements have been found, mainly in the Indus River valley in Pakistan and north western India.
The language of the Indus Civilization has yet to be deciphered, and the real name of the city as of other excavated cities in
Sindh,
Punjab and
Gujarat, is unknown. "Mohenjo-daro" is
Sindhi for "Mound of the Dead." (The name is also seen with slight variants such as Moenjodaro.)
Mohenjo-Daro, 25 km southwest of
Larkana, was center of the Indus Valley Civilization
2600 BC-
1700 BCMohenjo-daro is a remarkable construction, considering its antiquity. It has a
planned layout based on a grid of streets, which were laid out in perfect patterns. At its height the city probably had around 35,000 residents. The buildings of the city were particularly advanced, with structures constructed of same-sized sun dried bricks of baked mud and burned wood.
The public buildings of these cities also suggest a high degree of social organization. The great granary at Mohenjo-daro is designed with bays to receive carts delivering crops from the countryside, and there are ducts for air to circulate beneath the stored grain to dry it.
Close to the granary, there is a building similarly civic in nature - a great public bath house, with steps down to a brick-lined pool in a colonnaded courtyard The elaborate
bath area was very well built, with a layer of natural
tar to keep it from leaking, and in the center was the swimming pool.
The houses were protected from noise, odours, and thieves. This urban plan included the world's first urban
sanitation systems.
Within the city, individual homes or groups of homes obtained water from wells. Some of the houses included rooms that appear to have been set aside for bathing, waste water was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets. Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes. A variety of buildings were up to two storeys high.
Being an agricultural city, it also featured a large well, and central marketplace. It also had a building with an underground furnace (
hypocaust), possibly for heated bathing.
Defensively Mohenjo-daro was a well fortified city. Lacking city walls, it did have towers to the west of the main settlement, and defensive fortifications to the south. Considering these fortifications and the structure of other major
Indus valley cities like
Harappa, lead to the question of whether Mohenjo-daro was an administrative center. Both Harappa and Mohenjo-daro share relatively the same architectural layout, and were generally not heavily fortified like other Indus Valley sites. It is obvious from the identical city layouts of all Indus sites, that there was some kind of political or administrative centrality, however the extent and functioning of an administrative center remains unclear. .
Mohenjo-daro was successively destroyed and rebuilt at least seven times. Each time, the new cities were built directly on top of the old ones. Flooding by the
Indus is thought to have been the cause of destruction.
The city was divided into two parts, the
Citadel and the Lower City. Most of the Lower City is yet uncovered, but the Citadel is known to have the public bath, a large residential structure designed to house 5,000 citizens and two large assembly halls.
Mohenjo-daro,
Harappa and their civilization, vanished without trace from history until discovered in the 1920s. It was extensively excavated in the 1920s, but no in-depth excavations have been carried out since the 1960s.
Civilization
Artifacts
"The Dancing girl" artifact found in Mohenjo Daro
The Dancing girl found in Mohenjo Daro is an interesting artifact that is some 4500-year old. The 10.8 cm long bronze statue of the dancing girl was found in 1926 from a house in Mohenjo Daro. She was British archaeologist
Mortimer Wheeler's favorite statuette, as he said in this quote from a 1973 television program:
"There is her little Baluchi-style face with pouting lips and insolent look in the eye. She's about fifteen years old I should think, not more, but she stands there with bangles all the way up her arm and nothing else on. A girl perfectly, for the moment, perfectly confident of herself and the world. There's nothing like her, I think, in the world."
John Marshall, one of the excavators at Mohenjo-Daro, described her as a vivid impression of the young ... girl, her hand on her hip in a half-impudent posture, and legs slightly forward as she beats time to the music with her legs and feet.
[2]The artistry of this statuette is recognizable today and tells of a strange, but at least fleetingly recognizable past. As author Gregory Possehl says, "We may not be certain that she was a dancer, but she was good at what she did and she knew it". The statue could well be of some queen or other important woman of the Indus Valley Civilization judging from the authority the figure commands.
"The Priest King" Wearing
Sindhi Ajruk, ca. 2500 BC. National Museum,
Karachi, Pakistan
Seated male
sculpture, or "Priest King" (even though there is no evidence that either
priests or
kings ruled the city). This 17.5 cm tall statue is another artifact which has become a symbol for the
Indus valley civilization. Archaeologists discovered the sculpture in Lower town at Mohenjo-Daro in 1927. It was found in an unusual house with ornamental brickwork and a wall niche and was lying between brick foundation walls which once held up a floor.
This bearded sculpture wears a fillet around the head, an armband, and a cloak decorated with trefoil patterns that were originally filled with red pigment.
The two ends of the fillet fall along the back and though the hair is carefully combed towards the back of the head, no bun is present. The flat back of the head may have held a separately carved bun as is traditional on the other seated figures, or it could have held a more elaborate horn and plumed headdress.
Two holes beneath the highly stylized ears suggest that a necklace or other head ornament was attached to the sculpture. The left shoulder is covered with a cloak decorated with trefoil, double circle and single circle designs that were originally filled with red pigment. Drill holes in the center of each circle indicate they were made with a specialized drill and then touched up with a
chisel. Eyes are deeply incised and may have held inlay. The upper lip is shaved and a short combed beard frames the face. The large crack in the face is the result of weathering or it may be due to original firing of this object.
Current UNESCO Status
Mohenjo-daro is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site. The most extensive recent work at the site has focused on attempts at conservation of the standing structures, undertaken by UNESCO in collaboration with the Department of Archaeology and Museums, as well as various foreign consultants.
In December 1996, preservation work at the 500-acre site suspended after funding from the government and international organisations ran out, according to a resident archaeologist.
However in April 1997, the UN Educational, Scientific and Culture Organisation (
UNESCO) funded $10 million to a project to be conducted over two decades in order to protect the Mohenjo-daro ruins from
flooding. This project has been a success so far.
UNESCO's efforts to save Mohenjo-daro was one of the key events that led the organization to establish
World Heritage Sites.