Earthen jar, A (a) in trench A (a) “near the platform of chiselled bricks.”

Remains of a jar, crushed, or broken, with field number P IV 95.

The field number of jar suggests that this was from Pit IV, which is on Mound AB. However, Sahni excavated a large area as Trench A in Mound F, which Vats reported in detail:
“in order to trace some more walls of the two blocks 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 of which lies to the 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.” (Vats 1940, p. 23).

“In the extension Aa were found in Stratum II a broken unicorn seal (Ab102, Pl. LXXXVI, 27), and a large spoon of shell (Aa167, 1. 7 ½ in.), the largest so far found at Harappa or Mohenjodaro. Further down in the following stratum, were recovered a fragmentary unicorn seal (Aa30) showing part of the animal, with the incense burner and only one surviving pictogram, as well as a corner piece of another steatite seal (No. Aa31)” (Vats 1940, p. 24)

Note: No mention above of any finds of earthen ware from Trench A (a).

Notably, Vats mentioned the chiselling of bricks in a trench “about 40 ft. south of Pit IV”, in the ‘southern edge of Mound AB measuring 187 ft.” and from the part he described as “Section I” he reported that:

“The remains in the Illrd stratum comprise three or four broken pavements in Section I, four or five corner walls widely scattered about, several other fragments of walls, and a large well in square Q 27/19, which was found at a depth of 8 ft. 2 in. below the surface (PI. XXXVI, f). A curious feature of this well is that it is composed of two concentric rings of masonry of which the outer one is 7 ft. 3 in. in diameter and the inner one 3 ft. 9 in., the interval of 1 ft. between them being filled with pure indurated clay. The former is built of whole bricks of the usual size, viz., 11 by 5 ½ in. by 2 ½ in., and the latter entirely of wedge-shaped bricks 9 ¾ to 10 in. long by 5 in. broad, tapering to 3 ¼ in. at the smaller end, by 2 in. thick. All these bricks were made apparently by chiselling bricks of the ordinary size. In this connection it is noteworthy that with one exception (footnote 1), wedge-shaped bricks have not been found in any other ancient well at Harappa, and at Mohenjo-daro, where they are common, the angle of the wedge is not, as a rule, so sharp” (p, 171).

Footnote 1: “Somewhat wedge shaped bricks are also found on the well in Trench IV, Mound F, but they are not well chiselled” (ibid).

Vats also reported “finds of a few crushed earthenware in the south-eastern portion of Section I” (p. 172).
So possibly this jar is from the trench south of Pit IV, in Mound AB.

For a description of Pit IV and the finds, including a“brick-on-edge pavement of Stratum III”, see Vats 1940, p. 169.