5/5 Dr. Ahmad Z. 3 months ago on Google • 185 reviews New
A
well-planned
street
grid
and
an
elaborate
drainage
system
hint
that
the
occupants
of
the
ancient
Indus
civilization
city
of
Mohenjo
Daro
were
skilled
urban
planners
with
a
reverence
for
the
control
of
water.
But
just
who
occupied
the
ancient
city
in
modern-day
Pakistan
during
the
third
millennium
B.C.
remains
a
puzzle.
"It's
pretty
faceless,"
says
Indus
expert
Gregory
Possehl
of
the
University
of
Pennsylvania
in
Philadelphia.
The
city
lacks
ostentatious
palaces,
temples,
or
monuments.
There's
no
obvious
central
seat
of
government
or
evidence
of
a
king
or
queen.
Modesty,
order,
and
cleanliness
were
apparently
preferred.
Pottery
and
tools
of
copper
and
stone
were
standardized.
Seals
and
weights
suggest
a
system
of
tightly
controlled
trade.The
city's
wealth
and
stature
is
evident
in
artifacts
such
as
ivory,
lapis,
carnelian,
and
gold
beads,
as
well
as
the
baked-brick
city
structures
themselves.
A
watertight
pool
called
the
Great
Bath,
perched
on
top
of
a
mound
of
dirt
and
held
in
place
with
walls
of
baked
brick,
is
the
closest
structure
Mohenjo
Daro
has
to
a
temple.
Possehl,
a
National
Geographic
Explorer,
says
it
suggests
an
ideology
based
on
cleanliness.
Wells
were
found
throughout
the
city,
and
nearly
every
house
contained
a
bathing
area
and
drainage
system.Archaeologists
first
visited
Mohenjo
Daro
in
1911.
Several
excavations
occurred
in
the
1920s
through
1931.
Small
probes
took
place
in
the
1930s,
and
subsequent
digs
occurred
in
1950
and
1964.
The
ancient
city
sits
on
elevated
ground
in
the
modern-day
Larkana
district
of
Sindh
province
in
Pakistan.
During
its
heyday
from
about
2500
to
1900
B.C.,
the
city
was
among
the
most
important
to
the
Indus
civilization,
Possehl
says.
It
spread
out
over
about
250
acres
(100
hectares)
on
a
series
of
mounds,
and
the
Great
Bath
and
an
associated
large
building
occupied
the
tallest
mound.
According
to
University
of
Wisconsin,
Madison,
archaeologist
Jonathan
Mark
Kenoyer,
also
a
National
Geographic
Explorer,
the
mounds
grew
organically
over
the
centuries
as
people
kept
building
platforms
and
walls
for
their
houses."You
have
a
high
promontory
on
which
people
are
living,"
he
says.
With
no
evidence
of
kings
or
queens,
Mohenjo
Daro
was
likely
governed
as
a
city-state,
perhaps
by
elected
officials
or
elites
from
each
of
the
mounds.
Prized
artifacts
A
miniature
bronze
statuette
of
a
nude
female,
known
as
the
dancing
girl,
was
celebrated
by
archaeologists
when
it
was
discovered
in
1926,
Kenoyer
notes.Of
greater
interest
to
him,
though,
are
a
few
stone
sculptures
of
seated
male
figures,
such
as
the
intricately
carved
and
colored
Priest
King,
so
called
even
though
there
is
no
evidence
he
was
a
priest
or
king.
The
sculptures
were
all
found
broken,
Kenoyer
says.
"Whoever
came
in
at
the
very
end
of
the
Indus
period
clearly
didn't
like
the
people
who
were
representing
themselves
or
their
elders,"
he
says.
The
decline
of
the
Indus
civilization
Just
what
ended
the
Indus
civilization—and
Mohenjo
Daro—is
also
a
mystery.
Kenoyer
suggests
that
the
Indus
River
changed
course,
which
would
have
hampered
the
local
agricultural
economy
and
the
city's
importance
as
a
center
of
trade.But
no
evidence
exists
that
flooding
destroyed
the
city,
and
the
city
wasn't
totally
abandoned,
Kenoyer
says.
And,
Possehl
says,
a
changing
river
course
doesn't
explain
the
collapse
of
the
entire
Indus
civilization.
Throughout
the
valley,
the
culture
changed,
he
says.
"It
reaches
some
kind
of
obvious
archaeological
fruition
about
1900
B.C.,"
he
said.
"What
drives
that,
nobody
knows."
(JOHN
ROACH)
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