Homes

Posts about ancient Indus Valley Civilization homes and houses.

Mystery of the Pillared Hall

What was the large pillared hall at Mohenjo-daro used for? The hall was approximately 27.5 meters square (90 feet square) with twenty square brick pillars arranged in four rows, only two of which are still preserved. Strips of paved floors sloped from south to north and each strip of flooring had row of bricks set on edge along both sides. The cross wall in the foreground was built later and divided the hall into smaller rooms. Its purpose remains an enigma.

Stairways of Mohenjo-daro II

In addition to hundreds of wells, Mohenjo-daro would have had hundreds of staircases. Many houses had stairs leading to upper courtyards of the building or to a second floor. This house in HR area had a double staircase that would allow people to enter and exit the upper courtyard in an orderly fashion. Some scholars feel this may have been a palace or a temple. Two doorways lead to a narrow courtyard at a lower level.

Low Lane, Mohenjo-daro

"With the exception of First Street, the most impressive thoroughfare in the DK Area, Southern Portion," writes the early excavator of Mohenjo-daro, Ernest J.H. Mackay, "is unquestionably Low Lane which runs practically parallel with it. This is chiefly because the depth to which it has been excavated and its narrow width increase the apparent height of the houses on either side. But the street has preserved its character and identity from the Intermediate III (XVI., 2.) onwards to the Late I Phase (Pl.

First Street of Mohenjo-daro: Revisited

John Marshall writes of what he called First Street, "The northern part of this street, 145 feet in length, had been dug by Mr. Hargreaves in 1925-6, the rest of the street, some 300 feet in length, was completely exposed by me down to the Intermediate level, the work involving the removal from the street itself of a 10 ft. thick layer of closely packed debris ... The width of the street averages 30 feet and it is the only street so far excavated at Mohenjo-daro that could have been used for wheeled traffic, if wheeled traffic was permitted inside the town.

Impressions of Indus Life around a Well

Excavator Ernest Mackay wrote of this well-head in Mohenjo-daro: "Brick lined wells are a common feature, most of the larger buildings and houses having their own, to which the poorer people frequently had access. In the early days of the city it is probably that some of the wells were quite private, as their seems to be no means of reaching them from the street, but later on, as the population grew, they were thrown open to public use.

The First Latrines

It is often said that the ancient Indus people invented latrines, as these examples from Harappa and Mohenjo-daro suggest. Mark Kenoyer writes "Many urban dwellers may have walked outside the city wall to the nearby fields to relive themselves, as is commonly done today throughout much of Asia. But many houses had latrines that were distinct from the bathing areas. The early excavators at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro did not pay mch attention to this essential feature of the Indus cities, but current excavations at Harappa are finding what appear to be latrines in almost every house.

The Great Bath of Mohenjo-daro C

The "great bath" is without doubt the earliest public water tank in the ancient world. The tank itself measures approximately 12 meters north-south and 7 meters wide, with a maximum depth of 2.4 meters. Two wide staircases lead down into the tank from the north and south and small sockets at the edges of the stairs are thought to have held wooden planks or treads. At the foot of the stairs is a small ledge with a brick edging that extends the entire width of the pool. People coming down the stairs could move along this ledge without actually stepping into the pool itself. The floor of the tank

The Harappan Bathroom

"The bathroom itself was usually a small square or rectangular room with a carefully-laid brick pavement sloping towards one corner. In this corner was the outlet for the water, which, in some cases also ran through the latrine."

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