Matrolocality in Harappa? What does that mean? Women are very important in the social hierarchy, and it may not be unrelated that most figurines like these found in Indus cities like Harappa are of women. First, the evidence: "Of particular interest" writes bioarchaeologist Nancy Lovell in the recent compendium of new research . . .
350 posts, also carried on our Facebook page, about the ancient Indus Valley civilization, including important news, research and occasional visits to museums with ancient Indus artifacts.
Oct 11, 2016
What was this enormous building in Mohenjo-daro used for? "The northern portion of Block 4 (Image 1)," in the L Area wrote the archaeologist John Marshall, "was originally a large hall of the Intermediate Period which appears to have been entirely covered ink the roof being supported by twenty rectangular piers averaging 5 feet by 3 ft. 4 in. in thickness."
Sep 25, 2016
"The centralized planning of the Harappan settlements," writes the archaeologist write Dilip Chakrabarti, "is one of their most famous features."
Sep 23, 2016
One unicorn horn or two? Two leading Indus researchers, after years of thought and research, came to different conclusions.
Sep 19, 2016
Few things better represent the power of ancient Indus cities in their time - much like subways and digital switches do modern cities - than brick drains.
Sep 17, 2016
Ramprasad Chanda, was "one of the best archaeologists that the Survey [of India] had trained under their scholarship scheme," and organizer of one of the first Indus exhibitions at the Indian Museum in Kolkata in 1924.
Sep 14, 2016
There are two crocodilians found in the Indus river system: One is the mugger crocodile (Crocodylus palustris) also known as 'magar much', and the other is the gharial (Gavialis gangeticus).
Sep 11, 2016
If we may fantasize about where ancient Indus archaeology could go online, one need not look farther than the City of Ur project.
Sep 4, 2016
Sir Mortimer Wheeler, the excavator of the wall shown here, wrote that ". . . . both Harappa and Mohenjo-daro were dominated by am embattled acropolis or citadel, occupying a marginal block and built up with mud and mud-brick to a height of forty or fifty feet
Sep 3, 2016
Evidence for a tsunami hitting Dholavira at some point in the past was recently presented by scientists from the Indian National Institute of Oceanography (NIO).
Aug 28, 2016
Quite a bit. Release weekend August 12-14 visits to the site went from about 2 thousand to 8 thousand per day. With the latest stats, Facebook demographics and poll question.
Aug 28, 2016
"The earliest representation of a unicorn is found on seals and sealings from sites in the northern Indus region, dated to c. 2600 BCE," writes Jonathan Mark Kenoyer.
Aug 26, 2016
The film Mohenjo Daro opens in the remote village of Amri, where Sarman (Hrithik Roshan) and his friends wrestle a large crocodile in a riverine gorge.
Aug 21, 2016
The seal that the publicity emblem (above) for the film Mohenjo Daro is actually based on (below) offers the opportunity to look at one of the most unresolved issues in ancient Indus studies: what was the so-called one-horned unicorn, and where did it come
Aug 20, 2016
A wide-ranging interview with one of our ancient Indus scholars, author and archaeologist Shereen Ratnagar.