Ancient Indus Civilization Blog

We start 2016 and inaugurate the new Harappa.com by publishing long-lost images from Sir Mortimer Wheeler's personal collection. They are of the excavations he led at Mohenjo-daro in 1950. >

Happy New Year 2016, from a relaunched Harappa.com, starting our 21st year and the year of the expected release of Ashutosh Gowariker's Mohenjo Daro, an epic romance with some of India's biggest stars than could do more for consciousness of the ancient Indus Civilization than so many new discoveries. >

"In my view Hindu bathing places, such as the ghats at Varanasi, may have existed from the time of the Indus civilization. It is supposed that a canal or branch of the Indus flowed next to the lower city of Mohenjo-daro, which appears to have been surrounded by revetments functioning as flood defenses. Next to what Ernest Mackay took to be 'a small fort on the city wall,' he found a "ghat like staircase" that led down at least as far as the present water level" (Wheeler, 1968:47). In any case the derivation of Sanskrit Ghatta- from Dravidian *katta, river bank, embankment, d… >

"The Great Bath, which I have reserved to the last, was part of what appears to have been a vast hydropathic [water therapeutic] establishment and the most imposing of all the remains unearthed at Mohenjo-daro. Its plan is simple: in the centre, an open quadrangle with verandahs on its four sides, and at the back of three of the verandahs various galleries and rooms; on the south, a long allery with a small chamber in each corner; on the east, a single range of small chambers, including one with a well (no 16); on the north, a group of several halls and fair-sized rooms. In t… >

Lothal's sophisticated sanitary and drainage system was a hallmark of ancient Indus cities. All of Lothal's drainage channels met at right angles, engineered with several steps to separate solid and liquid wastes. >

Farmers in the Indus valley were the first to spin and weave cotton. In 1929 archaeologists recovered fragments of cotton textiles at Mohenjo-Daro, in what is now Pakistan, dating to between 3250 and 2750 BCE. >

The Archaeological Survey of India has apparently allocated a large sum to improve sites at Lothal and Dholavira and enhance the visitor experience. >

Recent news includes the opening of a Rediscovering Harappa: through the five elements (water, earth, fire, air, ether) Exhibition at the Lahore Museum on November 21st, and the apparent discovery of Indus artifacts from 2600 BCE in Sikander South near Dera Ismail Khan. >

Out now in UK - History Today - main feature by Andrew Robinson on the greatness of the civilisation western media forgets about http://www.historytoday.com/magazine >

Excavations at the "Granary," Harappa, Trenches 41 exposed new facts about this most puzzling of structures. Built apparently at one time, and more than once reconstructed on the foundations of a previous structure, there is absolutely no sign of grain in the rooms or hollow areas between them. >

Google has come up with a 3D Viewer that lets you visit the Harappa Museum and parts of the site online. >

The great Ancient Indus city of Dholavira features some of the best preserved stone architecture from the ancient Indus period. Traveller Jitaditya Narzary recounts in detail his visit to the site and gives an inside look at this beautiful site and the history it reveals. >

Male figurines are sometimes also identified by secondary sex characteristics such as beards. Occasionally, male figurines wear a headdress with two upward and/or outward projections like horns. Similar figures with horned headdresses are found in the iconography of seals, tablets, and pottery. It is possible that these represent composite figures with anthropomorphic and animal attributes or the appropriation of animal attributes in the form of a headdress. In addition to different postures, male figurines also exhibit a variety of hairstyles. Both male and female figurines may have hair swe… >

This beautiful three-sided terracotta sealing from 2000 BCE depicts a male cult figure seated in a yogic posture on a throne, a bull-like animal, and five characters in the Indus script. Today, the seal resides in the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford. See also Long Indus Seals. >

Collection of Ravi Phase pottery featuring several pieces with a variety of detail and colors. >