Lost City of Mohenjo-Daro

Mohenjo-Daro: The Lost City

Well-planned features tell us that Mohenjo-Daro was a well planned civilization. They were skilled and made there city clearly thinking about benefits for the people. It was located in modern day Pakistan around the third millennium B.C, but who inhabited this city we don't know. As Gregory Possehl, an Indus expert, says, "It's pretty faceless" There is no clue to the religion, language, or people in the city of Mohenjo-Daro, neither is there evidence of a certain government or ruling system. If there was no evidence of a ruler, it was most likely that the city was governed as a city-state. Mohenjo-Daro, from evidence was a very "neat" and organized city. Pottery, copper, and stone tools were mainly used and seals and weight say that there was a system of trade that might have been tightly contained. Artifacts such as ivory, lapis, gold beads, etc. were found, suggesting wealth and trade in the city. Adding to the theory of cleanliness, wells were found throughout the city and every house included a bathing area and drainage system

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Mahenjo-Daro is a city built on mounds, and in it's prime, it spread out over 250 acres, or 100 hectares. On the tallest mound, there was the Great Bath and a large building. According to historians, the people of the city actually built the houses and other buildings around the mounds as they organically grew. The city was visited for the first time in 1911, but then excavated several times over a period between 1920s-1931.

A celebrated find by Archaeologists was that of a nude, bronze statuette of a women, which was named the dancing girl, and was discovered in 1926. Other statues are of seated, male figures that are decorated. they are called Priest Kings even though there is no evidence whatsoever of the statues being of priests. This might be some kind of evidence of a ruler in the city of Mohenjo-Daro. Yet all these sculptures were found broken, maybe some showing dislike towards the certain people portrayed in the figurine?

Just like other great civilizations (Atlantis?) the fate of the Indus civilization is unknown? WHat ended them? It is thought that the river changed course, effecting the agriculture and the trade routes for the city. Still, historians are puzzled a river changing course couldn't cause the Indus civilization to collapse and effect the culture around it?

Roach, John. "Lost City of Mohenjo Daro -- National Geographic." Science and Space Facts, Science and Space, Human Body, Health, Earth, Human Disease - National Geographic. Natural Geographic. Web. 17 May 2011. .