Mohenjo-Daro

 


https://smarthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Resized-Mohenjo-daro-scaled.jpg

Mohenjo-Daro is an archaeological site located in the province of Sindh, Pakistan. Mohenjo-Daro translates into English meaning,” Mound of the Dead Men.”  Built around 2500 B.C.E., it was one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, and one of the world’s earliest major cities. “The well-planned city was mostly built with baked bricks and having public baths; a college of priests; an elaborate drainage system; wells, soak pits for disposal of sewage, and a large granary, bears testimony that it was a metropolis of great importance, enjoying a well-organized civic, economic, social and cultural system.” (Archaeological Ruins at Mohenjo-Daro).  Several settlements thrived around the river Indus, which extends from the Tibetan plateau and flows into the Arabian Sea. These settlements of Indus cities have been excavated in Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan. They are known collectively as the Indus Valley Civilization. Mohenjo-Daro was abandoned in the 19th century B.C.E. as the Indus Valley Civilization declined, and the site was not rediscovered until the 1920’s.

We do not know a lot about life and the people, however Numerous notable objects were found in the excavation, including seated and standing figures, copper and stone tools, carved seals, balance-scales and weights, gold and jasper jewelry, and children's toys. Many bronze and copper pieces, such as figurines and bowls, have been recovered from the site, showing that the inhabitants of Mohenjo-Daro understood how to utilize the lost wax technique. The discovered furnaces that were probably used for copperworks and melting the metals as opposed to smelting. Some of the most prominent copperworks recovered from the site are the copper tablets which have examples of the untranslated Indus script and iconography.


               

              

  Large sites like Mohenjo-Daro have revealed highly efficient urban style planning, well designed homes and neighborhoods laid out on a grid pattern, granaries, and public buildings all built with uniformly sized bricks. The Indus people were skilled in the management of natural resources, as one of the large sites found in the area had a sophisticated system of water management, and complex writing systems.



 

 

Ø  Dr. Arathi Menon, "A brief history of the art of South Asia: Prehistory – c. 500 C.E.," in Smarthistory, December 1, 2019, accessed October 9, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/south-asia-prehistory-500/.

Ø  V, Jayaram. “Where Is Mount Meru?” Hinduwebsite.com, www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/concepts/meru.asp.

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