Trench A(b) is one of eastward trenches cut by Daya Ram Sahni in Mound F.
"In order to trace some more walls of the two blocks of of the Great Granary Mr. Sahni made a few stray extensions about the centre of Trench A both towards the east and west. In the former direction, that part which lies to north of corridor é was termed Ab, and the one to the south as Aa, while the two small westward extensions were termed Ac and Ad. In the area Ab, close to the statuette of the dancer and in the same startum, he found a plano-convex, rectangular steatite seal (No. Ab922, Pl. XCII, 275), and an excellent representation of a terracotta ant-eater (No. Ab923, Pl. LXXVIII, 26).
Scattered over the remaining part of this extension he found from Startum I an inscribed pointed ivory rod (No. Ab62, Pl. XCIX, 643), and in association with Stratum II a cuboid chert weight (A616), a rectangular cake of red ochre (No. Ab104), a plano-convex rectangular steatite seal (No. Ab130, Pl XCII, 269), half of a square faience sealing (No. Ab44, PL. XCV, 394) inscribed with a double square [ref slide], a tiny rectangular faience sealing (no. Ab554) [ref slide?] inscribed on both sides (Pl. CXX, 22), a pear-shaped, flat-bottomed pottery vase with horizontal flutes (No. Ab268, ht. 4 1/2 in., Pl. LXXI, 17, and Pl. LXX, 420, and a painted potsherd (No. Ab207), which shows a peacock and a hen facing each other, part of another quadruped, etc. (Pl. LXVIII, 54). From the IIIrd stratum were recovered a rectangular plano-convex steatite seal (No. AB553, Pl. XCII, 274), two faience sealings of which No. Ab707 is lentoid and inscribed on both sides (Pl. XCV, 380), and No. Ab269 rectangular but semi-round in section, having pictograms on one side and an acacia tree enclosed in a platform on the other (similar to No. 328 in Pl. XCIII), a faience chessman-shaped object holed on the underside (Ab867), and a red stone cylinder (ht. 1 5/16 in.) with a deep hole at the top and shallow socket at bottom (Ab349). In the IVth stratum was recovered a square, bossed faience sealing (Ab43) with double triangles in fields on either side of the diagonal line (Pl. XCV, 400)."
- Madho Sarup Vats, Excavations at Harappa: Being an account of archaeological excavations at Harappa carried out between the years 1920-21 and 1933-34. Volume I - Text; Volume II - 139 Plates., pp 23-24.
Although the image has deep shadows, there is actually a workman sitting in the right edge of the trench for scale. The irregular excavation walls show the early technique of haphazard digging to expose structures but also reveal the depth of brick robbing that totally disturbed the stratigraphy of the site. There must have been some very large brick structures here that were heavily mined for their bricks, leaving vast mounds of disturbed sediments mixed with artifacts.
- Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, 2023.