Page 71 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

890 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Brick alters in modern
India once used for sac-
rifices that trace their
origins to the begin-
nings of Hinduism in
the ancient Indus Valley.

elevated artificial mound was
situated on the west. This is
now called the Mound of the
Great Bath, because of the pres-
ence of a ritual bathing tank
in just about its geographical
center.The Lower Town, where
most of the people lived and
worked, was laid out in a grid,
with major thoroughfares run-
ning north-south and east-west.
Multiroom buildings that were
probably also multistoried
lined these streets.The private
Ravi River in the Punjab (Harappa), and the Ghaggar- houses were generally provided with bathing facilities
Hakra River (Ganweriwala and Rakhigarhi). Dholavira that were connected to a civic drainage system. These
may be an exception to this; today it is on an island in were specifically bathing facilities; they were not privies.
what is called the Rann of Kachchh, a large salt marsh Harappa is located in the West Punjab, in Pakistan, on
above the Gulf of Kachchh.We do not know if the shal- the southern bank of the Ravi River 650 kilometers
low Rann of today was an arm of the sea in the third mil- northeast of Mohenjo Daro. Harappa is the name of the
lennium, but the Rann most certainly would have been modern village adjacent to the mounds, and is not the
fed in part by the waters of the Indus, so in a sense city’s ancient name. Unlike Mohenjo Daro, Harappa was
Dholavira too can be said to have a riverine setting. a well-established settlement before the advent of the
The land was quite different in the third millennium, Indus civilization. There were villages there as early as
when the now dry Ghaggar-Hakra was larger and the 4000–3200 BCE as well as during the early Harappan
rolling uplands between the rivers of the Punjab were period. Harappa is also a place where the transition from
unirrigated scrub grasslands. Tree and grass cover were early Harappan to mature Harappan civilization can be
also probably better. But there were also constants; the documented, so it is a very important site for archaeolo-
summer monsoon, for example. The wheat and barley gists.There is also a small post-Indus settlement and cem-
crops of the Punjab,Sind,and Baluchistan benefited from etery there, of the so-called Cemetery H culture.
the winter rainfall coming across the Iranian Plateau Harappa has been divided into several areas. The AB
from the Mediterranean, just as they do today. Mound, also called the High Mound, is somewhat like
the Mound of the Great Bath at Mohenjo Daro, but lacks
The Cities of Mohenjo Daro a bath, as far as archaeologists can tell. Mound F to the
and Harappa north has a large building that may well be a warehouse.
Mohenjo Daro is a splendidly preserved ancient city. It It is near threshing and husking facilities for the process-
was planned from the start, and was, at least for the most ing of food grains.The southern part of the site is known
part, built in the middle centuries of the third millen- as Mound E, with the adjacent ET area, an area of habi-
nium. It is constructed of baked brick, which is why it has tation and craft activities. Harappa also has the largest of
survived so well.There are two parts to the city. A small, the cemeteries known from the Indus civilization.