Excavations

In the coming months we will feature posts on the site known as Chanhudaro, in Nawabshah, Sindh. This is one of the most interesting and highly-sophisticated "small towns" of the ancient Indus Valley. Since 2015, a French-Pakistani joint archaeological mission has started excavating the site. >

"The economy of these people must have relied largely on agriculture. Although no cereals were found in the course of excavating the discovery of a ploughed field [1], situated to the south-east of the settlement outside the town-hall, is highly significant." >

"I have a feeling that people do not 'discover lost civilizations'; but rather that, when the time is ripe, lost civilizations reveal themselves, using for the purpose whatever resources and people are to hand." >

Topography of the ancient site of Harappa, including smaller mound in the top right still settled today, by Bill Belcher. See also Mark Kenoyer's comprehensive article The Ancient City of Harappa. >

Exciting new discoveries through 2015 at Salut tower in Oman show how extensive Indus trade and relationships with this area were during the Bronze Age (2500-2000 BCE). >

The drainage system was one of the most remarkable features of the Mature Harappan city. All the streets and lanes across neighbourhoods in Mohenjo-daro had drains. In addition there was also provision for managing wastewater inside the houses with vertical pipes in the walls that led to chutes opening on to the street. >

A portion of a large brick drain excavated at Harappa that survived the brick robbers. Dating to about 2400-2200 BCE, it was later filled in and the area leveled. The 5 images here show it in context, as well as some of the banded beads found in situ around it. 1. This view along Drain [8] into the mound shows details of the brick construction, the robbed out area at the east end of the drain (background), sloping strata above indicating the existence of an open street drain along the same line as the earlier baked brick drain, and the later Period 3C architecture built after the open drai… >

Discarded ancient Indus sherds, after archaeologists have sifted through them and cleaned them. This pottery debris from excavations at Harappa covers hundreds - if not a thousand – years of habitation, far longer a period than say modern times. One can imagine each sherd having its own story, connected to another sherd now far away in the pile, the centuries layered upon each other in the sunlight. 1 and 2. Sorted and discarded pottery sherds from continuing excavations at Harappa since 1985. 3. Earth and debris excavated from the houses and streets of DK-I area was dumped directly onto … >

Just as we turn to more of the publications about discoveries about ancient Dilmun, another find on an island near Bahrain, with Indus pottery fragments, and a Gulf-type seal that reiterates how important trade relationships by sea were with this area. >

Workers digging a deep pit during the 1935-36 excavations in Chanhu-daro, Sindh. Chanhu-daro was the only American run pre-partition Indus excavations, by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and led by Ernest J.H. Mackay. They revealed a highly-advanced ancient Indus manufacturing site. An illustrated 1937 article by Dorothy Mackay describing it in Finds at Chanhu-daro. Asko Parpola speculated that the discovery of a unique sign on selas from the site may be indicative of a place name in the Indus script: See https://www.harappa.com/blog/indus-sign-place-name and https://wwwharappa.com/bl… >