We are delighted to publish a new set of over 50 photographs from Daya Ram Sahni's second season at Harappa in 1923-24, before he or anyone knew about the ancient Indus civilization. Unearthing the Mysteries of Harappa is unique contribution to Indus archaeology curated by Dr. Nadine Zubair with contemporary commentary by Dr. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer.
"In January 1927, Mackay began working in L-Area, ca. 28 meters south of the Stupa on the Mound of the Great Bath. He uncovered the so-called 'Assembly Hall' and other architectural remains that are not well understood, even today. He also found three pieces of limestone sculpture: a seated torso (L-950), a reasonably well-preserved bust (L-898) and a very poor, abraded head, possibly of a woman (L-127)."
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. Four drains that could from Harappa and Mohenjo-daro show that the volume of water that flowed through these structures must have been like nothing seen before by ancient wayfarers.
John Marshall writes: "A remarkable feature of the city of Mohenjo-daro is the very elaborate drainage system that exists even in the poorest quarters of the city.
The correct answer is Harappa, excavated for 26 seasons, compared to Mohenjo-daro at 15 and Kalibangan at 10 when Gregory Possehl wrote in 1990: "Harappa has been the most frequently investigated of any of the ancient settlements of the Harappan cultural tradition.
Surkotada is a small, 3.5 acre site northeast of Bhuj, in Gujarat. "The mound has an average height of five-to-eight metres (east-to-west) and was discovered by the author during the course of his explorations in Kutch in December, 1964," writes Jagat Pati Joshi in Excavation at Surkotada and Exploration in Kutch.
Latest research on archaeological sites of the ancient Indus Civilisation, which stretched across what is now Pakistan and northwest India during the Bronze Age, has revealed that domesticated rice farming in South Asia began far earlier than previously believed.
Rehman Dheri is one of the earliest planned urban sites found in South Asia to date. The site was first explored in 1971 by Professor Ahmad Hassan Dani and excavated by Professor Farzand Ali Durrani from the University of Peshawar from 1976 to 1982, and again in 1991.