Mohenjo-daro

What was really going on at the so-called stupa mound in Mohenjo-daro? This important paper by Giovanni Verardi and Federica Barba challenges the long-standing interpretation of the so-called Stupa Mound at Mohenjo Daro, as a Buddhist stupa dating to the 2nd century AD. >

Things were never simple in Indus times. This excellent paper neatly summarizes what we know about ancient Indus agricultural strategies in the face of diverse local conditions and possibly radical climate changes about 4,000 years ago. >

Were there palaces at Mohenjo-daro? This article examines the social implications associated with historical architecture. The presence of centralized "palaces" suggests a social stratification including an elite class. >

Picture a lane in Mohenjo-daro around 2300 BCE, a narrow, mudbrick-lined passages that still trace the lower town today, just as remarkable in their orderliness as the city's famous covered drains. Someone sets down a handful of small objects. >

The case for Indus egalitarianism has rested on apparent absences: no palaces, no royal tombs, no exclusionary temples, no individual-aggrandizing art. Adam Green, who already argued in Killing the Priest-King that we should perhaps retire the assumption of Indus elites altogether, has long pushed … >