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First Excavations at Harappa
1924-25: A Lost City Emerges

Globular Pot

Circular Hearth in Eastern Part of Trench A (f) from S.E.

View of a large globular pot.

Sahni reported a “large heap of ashes mixed with charred bones” from Trench A (f) [p. 75], and described the excavations at this area as:

“In the area between the trench Ae … and the long trench A, a large rectangular cutting A(f), 89' x 66', was made and excavated to the depth of about 6' below the surface Here, as elsewhere, no complete structural remains were found, but reference may be made to two little circular structures paved in brick on a thick substratum of hard burnt nodules of brick. The structures are blackened with soot but it is difficult to say definitely whether they were hearths or chimneys of some kind. Another little structure consists of a paved platform surrounded by a single course of brick laid on-edge which might have been a bathing platform as a large earthen jar was standing on one side of it. Underneath this platform was a mass of cremated human bones and about 16' from it, a large heap of ashes and charcoal with human bones, which undoubtedly represents the remains of several funeral pyres. … Another building in this trench of which only a small fragment had survived, was provided with a spill jar which was photographed in position. Plate XXIV (d) shows the contents of a large funeral jar found in this trench” [ARASI 1924-25, p. 77].

NOTE: The photograph is possibly a funerary jar. Is this the large earthen jar which Sahni mentioned “standing on one side” of the “brick laid on-edge” structure, which he inferred was a “bathing platform”?

Slide Year
1924-25: A Lost City Emerges
ASI Number
458/86
Punjab Volume
31
Silver Plate
3458
Harappa
Photograph
Daya Ram Sahni
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