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Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Mohenjo-daro city is not older than Egyptian cities. Here’s what the recent dig really shows

Recent evidence from Mohenjo Daro does not suggest that urbanisation at the site is dated to 3300 BCE. Rather, it indicates that the site is rooted in a much earlier, pre-urban phase.

A recent excavation at Pakistan’s Mohenjo Daro yielded evidence of a seven-meter-thick wall, the earliest parts of which might go back to the very beginning of the Harappan civilisation. These remains of a rampart, also once found by Mortimer Wheeler during his 1950s stint at the site, are now dateable to 2800-2600 BCE. This pushes the antiquity of Mohenjo-daro a few centuries earlier than previously thought.

The excavation, a joint mission of the Directorate General of Archaeology and Antiquities, Sindh and the Sindh Exploration and Adventure Society, was led by Pakistani archaeologists Asma Ibrahim, Ali Lashari, and senior American archaeologist Jonathan Mark Kenoyer.

According to the excavators, Kot Dijian pottery was recovered from below the first city wall, indicating the presence of an early Harappan occupation. In short, it means that Mohenjo-daro was in existence earlier than archaeologists thought. But does this mean that the urbanisation is pushed to 2800 BCE? The answer is no.

As exciting as the recent finding is, it is certainly not the first in the story of the Harappan civilisation in modern-day Pakistan or India. Unfortunately, many appear to have misinterpreted recent media coverage, particularly a headline suggesting that Mohenjo-daro’s urban roots go back to 3300 BCE. This refers to the early Harappan or pre-urban phase at the site, which has been found at many Harappan sites, including Harappa, Rakhigarhi, and Dholavira. It doesn’t mean that a city existed at Mohenjo-daro in the fourth millennium BCE.

Some media outlets also claimed that the city of Mohenjo-daro is the earliest in the world—older than the Egyptian cities—which is a misleading, wrong claim.

So,........

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