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Mahesh

27/11/22 20:30 PM IST

100 years since the discovery of Mohenjo Daro

In News 
  • Exactly a century ago, in 1922, humanity rediscovered Mohenjo Daro.
About Mohenjo-daro
  • Mohenjo-Daro or the “Mound of the dead” lies in Larkana district of Sindh (Pakistan), about 5 km away from the Indus.
  • It was discovered by archeologists Rakhaldas Banerji and Sir John Marshall.
Significance 
  • It is one of the largest of the Indus Valley Civilization sites.
  • The site is famous for its elaborate town planning with street grids with brick pavements, developed water supply, drainage, and covered sewerage systems, homes with toilets, and monumental buildings.
  • Its excavations revealed findings like the Great Bath, Great Granary, a large assembly hall, temple-like structure, the seal of Pashupati and a bust of a bearded man.
  • It is the most glaring example of town planning in the Harappan civilization.
  • The city is divided into citadel and lower city.
  • It is clear that the citadel (for such it evidently was) carried the religious and ceremonial headquarters of the site.
  • In the lower town were substantial courtyard houses indicating a considerable middle class.
  • Its relationship with Harappa, however, is uncertain—i.e., if the two cities were contemporaneous centres or if one city succeeded the other.
  • Aesthetically the most notable work of figurative art from the city is a famous bronze of a young dancing girl, naked save for a multitude of armlets.
  • Among innumerable terra-cottas the most expressive are small but vigorous representations of bulls and buffalo.
  • The evidence suggests that Mohenjo-daro suffered more than once from devastating floods of abnormal depth and duration.
  • The civilization went into decline in the middle of the second millennium BC for reasons that are believed to include catastrophic climate change.
  • Mohenjo-daro was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1980.
Indus River Valley Civilization
  • The Indus River Valley Civilization ( 3300-1300 BCE) also known as the Harappan Civilization, was extended from modern-day northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India.
  • It is the oldest recorded civilisation of the Indian subcontinent.
  • The civilisation was a contemporary of Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilisations with whom it had trade contacts.
  • It is often separated into three phases- The Early Harappan Phase from 3300 to 2600 BCE,
  • The Mature Harappan Phase from 2600 to 1900 BCE, and
  • The Late Harappan Phase from 1900 to 1300 BCE.
  • The Indus civilization is known to have consisted of two large cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, and more than 100 towns and villages, often of relatively small size.
  • The southern region of the civilization, on the Kathiawar Peninsula and beyond, appears to be of later origin than the major Indus sites.
Source- Indian Express 

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