The Indus Civilization
Mohenjo-Daro
About 4500 years ago, while in Egypt the pyramids were being
built and scripture was being written Mesopotamia, in the great Indus
Valley, todays Pakistan, the great city of Mohenjo-Daro was being constructed. Mohenjo-Daro, or “Mound of The Dead”, was one of the world’s
largest and earliest urban settlements of the ancient Indus Valley
civilization. It was built around 2600 BC and was abandoned 1800 BC. The site
consisted of a planned layout based on a rectangular grid. Buildings were made
of fired and mortared brick, others with mud-brick and some wooden structures. The
city was rebuilt several times, over each other, due to floods from the Indus
River.
The great size and grid arrangement of the city suggested
that Mohenjo-Daro was a made with a high level of social organization. At its
peak, Mohenjo-Daro could have supported a population around 35,000. The city
was then separated into two sections, the citadel and the lower city. The Lower
City is yet to be uncovered, but the Citadel is famous for its large public
baths or pools, a large residential structure that could house up to 5,000 citizens,
and two large assembly halls, the Pillared Hall and the College Hall
The Great Granary was a massive structure built with solid
brick foundations with sockets for a wooden super structure and doorways. The function
of the Granary has not been determined because of the improper excavations done
by local workmen, and no proper documentation of precise location of artifacts.
The structure was probably a large public location, a storehouse, or a temple
of some form.
North east of the Great Granary is a large and elaborate
public bath called the Great Bath. From a colonnaded courtyard, steps lead down
to the brick-built pool, which was waterproofed by a lining of bitumen. The
pool measures 12m long, 7m wide and 2.4m deep. The baths may have been used for
religious purification.
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| Great Bath |
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The Pillared Hall is thought to be an assembly hall of some
kind. And the College Hall was a complex structure that contained over 70 rooms
that is believed to house residence of upper class.
The city’s central marketplace contained a large central
well. Individual households or groups of households obtained their water from
smaller wells. Waste water was channeled in drains that lined the major
streets. Some houses of the wealthier inhabitants included rooms that appear to
have been used for bathing. One building had an underground furnace (known as a
hypocaust)that was possibly used for heated bathing. Most houses had inner
courtyards, with doors that opened onto side-lanes. Some buildings had two
stories.
One of the well-known artifacts found in Mohenjo-Daro is a
small steatite figurine of a priest-king:
The sculpture has two small holes under its ears and suggests
it might have been worn as a necklace or a kind of ornament. The priest king is
wearing a robe with an exposed shoulder, headband and an armband that has a
small ring attached to it. Although there is no evidence that mohenjo-daro was
a ruled by monarchs or priests, archaeologist suggest that the figuring is a
preist king due to its appearance.
Questions still being asked today include “who were the
people who constructed this great and organized city?”, “why did they abandoned
the city and what happened to the inhabitants?”
About the Author
I'm Jose Pierre and I like learning about all aspects of culture, both ancient and modern. I enjoy learning how they communicated, expressed themselves, and their technology.
