Mohenjo-daro

Mohenjo-daro ─ literally the mount of dead the , a name which it shares with Lothal - is an important site of the Civilization of the valley of Indus, one finds there the vestiges of one of the largest cities of the Bronze Age. It is located at the Pakistan to 300 km with the north-north-east of Karâchi.

Having undergone few modern degradations, its state of conservation is better than that of Harappâ, and consequently, it is an important information source on the civilization to which the city belonged. It was built during the III {{E}} thousand-year-old before J. - C. and was abandoned at the end of, probably because of a change of the course of the river.

Discovered of an unknown civilization

The site is redécouvert in the Années 1920. Between 1922 and 1927, excavations with large scales are started there by Rakhal Dâs Banerjî then continued by Madho Sarup Vats and Kashinath Narayan Dikshit under the direction of John Marshall. Ernest MacKay carries out there other excavations of 1927 with 1931. Mortimer Wheeler supplements this work in 1950 by excavations of less scale.

The work carried out on the site made it possible to release a hundred hectares of the ruins of the city, ten times more than what had been revealed in the years 1920, but probably only one third of entire surface studied. With Mohenjo-daro it was the first time that one put at the day of the vestiges of the age of the valley of Indus whose one was unaware of the existence hitherto.

Mohenjo-daro randomly did not build the constructions added during time, but like the other cities of the civilization of Indus, Harappâ, Kâlîbangan or Lothal, it reveals an urbanization considered and planned in the layout of the streets, forming a grate and whose at least a 10 meters broad boulevard divided the low city into two. Indeed, there exists, as in the other sites of Indus, a division of the city in two parts which one names traditionally the citadel or high city and the low city . Constructions are made of wood hardened with fire, of bricks dried with the sun, communes in Mésopotamie or cooked with the furnace, a characteristic of Indus which ensured a greater longevity the buildings. These last followed the standards of size standardized of the age of Indus, the width of the double height, the length of the double of the width (to be compared with current standard NF: length 240 mm X width 115 mm X height 52 mm).

Two cities

One generally estimates the population of the city at 40.000 people. The excavations revealed, in addition to the dwelling houses often comprising a bathroom, a system of drainage of waste water, a comfort probably invented by this civilization, as well as attics.

The citadel has a Grand bath , the ancestor of the Bâoli S or tanks which one finds in the whole India and with the Sri Lanka, on 9 m broad, with a depth of 2,40 Mr. This tank 14 m length is surrounded by small parts of which one shelters a well. The citadel comprises also immense attics of 50 X 20 m, a great residential structure. The most unexpected discovery perhaps is that of a building comprising a hypocauste, probably for the heating of the water of the bath.

In the east of the high city , it is the low city , very wide, where one finds the plan of streets out of grid. Those right, are skirted there by the sewerage system. They determined blocks of dwelling of 390 X 260 Mr. constructions have a platform roof, always very running in the current Indian world, supported by beams and to which generally a staircase carries out. Some probably had two stages and the majority enjoy a small room of baths. The houses are various, unquestionable sizes small, others more roomy comprise an interior court, without opening on the street and give in a lane, to isolate itself from the agitation of the main streets.

Furnaces of potters, tanks to be dyed, workshops of work of metals, manufacture of pearls and work of the shells were updated there. The inhabitants of the city controlled the irrigation and controlled the risings of the river. One found during the excavations a great quantity of ground seals comprising of the inscriptions, as well as rarer works, hones some like the steatite statuette (17,7 cm in height) called, certainly in an incorrect way, the Priest-king or that out of bronze known under the name of the Danseuse .

The company

According to the manufactured objects and other indices discovered on the site, the archeologists have an acceptable idea of this civilization, whose writing is not deciphered yet. By studying the plans and constructions of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappâ, one can deduce that these two cities belonged to an identical cultural surface, and perhaps shared a community of government, as regional capital. The two cities were built with standardized bricks, of form and dimensions. Contrary to other civilizations, the burials appear rather simple, without remarkable funerary objects by their richness. One from of deduced that this company was unaware of division in social classes. No identifiable structure like palate or temple was found in the cities of Indus in general and in Mohenjo-Daro in particular. These probably peaceful agricultural people did not leave any trace of undeniable military activity, even if the use of knives, lances and arrowheads bronze and copper is proven. The cities comprised fortifications however.

The city was successively destroyed and rebuilt at least seven times. The risings of Indus are the most probable cause of the destruction. Each time, the new city was built above old.

Discussed theory

Recently a theory, subjected by the scientists David Davenport and Ettore Vincenti, did much noise in the scientific circle. Being based on several observations of ground, they affirm that the town of Mohenjo-Daro would have been destroyed following a nuclear explosion. They are based in particular on the presence of layers of clay and green glass, which one finds in Nevada, after the nuclear tests. Analyzes confirmed that fragments of the city had melted in contact with a very high temperature. Moreover of the dozen skeletons found in the sector of Mohenjo-Daro have a radioactivity surplus the usual standard of almost 50 times. That points out certain crowned texts of India, referring to a weapon devastator, able to reduce in ashes a city. English article here

Any theory putting in scene a nuclear energy utilization at remote times is regarded by the whole of the community of the historians and the archeologists as whimsical and engages only its authors.

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