DiscoverScroll article

Mohenjo-daro (; Sindhi: موهن جو دڙو‎, lit.

'Mound of the Dead Men'; Urdu: موئن جو دڑو ) is an archaeological site in the Larkana District of Sindh, Pakistan. 2500 BCE, it was one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation, and one of the world's earliest major cities, contemporaneous with the civilisations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Minoa, and Norte Chico. With an estimated population of at least 40,000 people, Mohenjo-daro prospered for several centuries, but by c. 1700 BCE had been abandoned, along with other large cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Significant excavation has since been conducted at the site of the city, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980, the first site in South Asia to be so designated. The site is currently threatened by erosion and improper restoration.

Based on his analysis of a Mohenjo-daro seal, Iravatham Mahadevan speculates that the city's ancient name could have been Kukkuṭārma ("the city of the cockerel "). Mohenjo-daro may also have been a point of diffusion for the clade of the domesticated chicken found in Africa, Western Asia, Europe and the Americas. Mohenjo-daro, the modern name for the site, has been interpreted as "Mound of the Dead" in Sindhi.

Mohenjo-daro is located off the right (west) bank of the lower Indus river in Larkana District, Sindh, Pakistan.

It was one of the largest cities of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation, also known as the Harappan Civilisation, which developed c. At its height, the Indus Civilisation spanned much of what is now Pakistan and North India, extending westwards to the Iranian border, south to Gujarat in India and northwards to an outpost in Bactria, with major urban centers at Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Lothal, Kalibangan, Dholavira, and Rakhigarhi.

This led to large-scale excavations of Mohenjo-daro led by Kashinath Dikshit in 1924–1925, and John Marshall in 1925–1926. In the 1980s, German and Italian survey groups led by Michael Jansen and Maurizio Tosi used less invasive archeological techniques, such as architectural documentation, surface surveys, and localized probing, to gather further information about Mohenjo-daro. A dry core drilling conducted in 2015 by Pakistan's National Fund for Mohenjo-daro revealed that the site is larger than the unearthed area.

In 1950, Sir Mortimer Wheeler identified one large building in Mohenjo-daro as a "Great Granary".

Based on these fortifications and the structure of other major Indus Valley cities such as Harappa, scholars have postulated that Mohenjo-daro was an administrative center. Harappa and Mohenjo-daro share a similar architectural layout and were generally not as heavily fortified as other Indus Valley sites.

Many bronze and copper pieces, such as figurines and bowls, have been recovered from the site, showing that the inhabitants of Mohenjo-daro understood how to utilize the lost wax technique. The finds from Mohenjo-daro were initially deposited in the Lahore Museum, but later moved to the ASI headquarters at New Delhi, where a new "Central Imperial Museum" was being planned for the new capital of the British Raj, in which at least a selection would be displayed. Most of the objects from Mohenjo-daro retained by India are in the National Museum of India in New Delhi and those returned to Pakistan in the National Museum of Pakistan in Karachi, with many also in the museum now established at Mohenjo-daro itself.

A bronze statuette dubbed the "Dancing Girl", 10.5 centimetres (4.1 in) high and around 4,000 years old, was found in 'HR area' of Mohenjo-daro in 1926; it is now in the National Museum, New Delhi.

The Mohenjo-daro site was further threatened in January 2014, when Bilawal Bhutto Zardari of the Pakistan People's Party chose the site for Sindh Festival's inauguration ceremony.

Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus Civilization: Being an official account of Archaeological Excavations at Mohenjo-Daro carried out by the Government of India between the years 1922 and 1927.

Quick Facts

• Significant excavation has since been conducted at the site of the city, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980, the first site in South Asia to be so designated.
• Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus Civilization: Being an official account of Archaeological Excavations at Mohenjo-Daro carried out by the Government of India between the years 1922 and 1927.
• 'Mound of the Dead Men'; Urdu: موئن جو دڑو ) is an archaeological site in the Larkana District of Sindh, Pakistan.
• 1700 BCE had been abandoned, along with other large cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation.
• 2500 BCE, it was one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation, and one of the world's earliest major cities, contemporaneous with the civilisations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Minoa, and Norte Chico.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Mohenjo-daro". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.