INDIA’S BURIED CITIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 383, 18 June 1928, Page 12

INDIA’S BURIED CITIES

CIVILISATION OLDER THAN UR HIGHLY-PRIZED FINDS Amazing secrets of old Indian civilisation continue to be uuearthedl as archaeologists proceed further into the mysteries of Mahenjo Daro, in the provinces of Sindh and Harappa. In the Punjab, 500 miles away, traces of civilisation between four and five thousand years old have been uncovered. At Mahenjo Daro three cities hove been brought to light, one built on the ruins of a previous Qne. A tank has been found in excellent condition. It is 39 feet in length. 23 in breadth, and sunk eight feet below the Co »r level. There is an outer wall six feet thick, which contains two doors on the south and smaller ones on the other sides. In one of the chambers is a well from which the tank was fed. There are steps leading down into the tank and the floor is of brb k made completely watertight by the use of gypsum mortar. The wall is reinforced with a layer of bitumen one inch thick. A covered drain six f high conveyed the waste water cutside the city. The houses found here indicate tnat the civilisation was far in adva ice even of that revealed by the famous ruins of Ur. showing, as they do, a system of sanitation which was absolutely unrivalled in those times. Model Copper Chariot Among the most highly prized finds in this city is a model in copper cf a chariot. A driver is seated in the front and the vehicle is believed to be the oldest known example of a wheeled conveyance, being older even than the famous picture of one which was found at Ur. At Harappa, in the Punjab, one of the most perfect discoveries is an old palace, 168 ft by 136 ft, with narrow halls and corridors running in parallel

senes, broad aisles bet»„ "*• Seals have been fcu nd ,!*“ the* Sir John Marshall, direeto?. ’' h ** aeology in India, has bVen L? *'*■ the date of the cities as ,0 and 2500 B.C. °«‘»een It has also been riioo,-.., there were two large ri,,™* 1 tl >*t of one in Sindh, one'ot whi3. la *’-e»4 more to the east of Sindh ° *l® ** r cities of the size of Mahenjo Harappa denote a civil, sed ” aro : M living on agriculture and But the cities were not a.rrangSf'L'defensive purposes. nDr wer 0 1011 many signs of weapons B e 'hete a few finds in the wav ol "ofaßJ and axes. -'Warhead, The seals and pictures found veal that Indian art was much advanced than the contemporanf ** of Hr. But the artists seem™ h£ been more successful ir del me ,12 animals than human beings ‘tv rhino and the elephant are c spicuous. while the dogs include ,2' varieties, one the ordinary pariah the other a hunting dog. -