Abstract
Mohenjodaro. The Sir George Birdwood memorial lecture of the Royal Society of Arts delivered on December 8 by Dr. E. H. J. Mackay (see NATUBE, 132, 960, Dec. 23, 1933) is published in full in the Society's Journal of January 5. The objective of the six years' excavation under Dr. Mackay from 1927 to 1933 was to establish the cultural history of the city in the period represented by the lower strata. Attempts were made to reach virgin soil, but these had to be abandoned at a depth of 43 ft. below the surface of the mound owing to the seepage of water from the Indus. The earliest remains of the city must be regarded as irretrievably lost, failing the employment of expensive pumping operations. The city from the earliest times was laid out in rectangular blocks of remarkable accuracy, the streets running at right angles. Excavations have been carried down to six levels of occupation, the finest and most carefully laid masonry being found in the early levels. Houses were well built up to the end of the Intermediate Period, when signs of economy appear and walls were made thinner. Houses were of two or more stories, the upper being reached by brick staircases. The drainage system is the most elaborate of any city of the same date even outside India. In the last two phases, when the wealthier population had left the city owing to floods, houses were roughly built and those of the DK mound were occupied by artisans. The city at this time was apparently exposed to raids from hill tribes, as skeletal remains have been found of inhabitants who had suffered a sudden and violent death. The skulls fall into two classes, Mediterranean and proto-Australoid, one showing a Mongolian strain. Cultural affinities with Mesopotamia, the results of trade, point to a date 2750–2500 B.C. for later strata and about three hundred years earlier for the lower levels. The highest art of the people is shown in the cutting of seals, the subjects affording valuable evidence of their religious beliefs. They appear to have been of western Asiatic origin, but there is at present nothing to indicate the date or route of their entry into India.
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Research Items. Nature 133, 180–181 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133180a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133180a0