Mohenjo-daro

Mohenjo-daro (Sindhi: موئن جو دڙو; Urdu: موئن جودڑو) is an ancient city in Pakistan, in the modern-day province of Sindh. It was built around 2500 BCE and was the biggest town of the ancient Indus Valley civilization. Mohenjo-daro is a famous archeological site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Remains of Mohenjo-daro

"The Dancing Girl" artifact found in Mohenjo-daro

The bust of the king priest dating 2,500-1,500 BC excavated at the site of the ancient town of Mohenjo-daro.

Mohenjo-daro was one of the earliest big cities in the world, like others in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete, and Norte Chico. People also call it the 'Mound of the Dead Men'.^[1]

Mohenjo-daro existed at the same time as the civilization of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece. The archaeological ruins of the city are designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In Pakistan, it is one of the national icons of the distant past.^[2]

Historical context

Mohenjo-daro was built in the 26th century BCE.^[3] It was one of the largest cities of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization,^[4] which developed around 3000 BCE from the prehistoric Indus culture.

At its height, the Indus Civilization spanned much of what is now Pakistan and some parts of northwest India. It also had an outpost in Bactria. There were major urban centers at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.

Mohenjo-daro was the most advanced city of its time, with remarkably sophisticated civil engineering and urban planning.^[5] However, when the Indus civilization went into sudden decline around 1900 BCE, Mohenjo-daro was abandoned.^[3][6]

Artifacts

"The Dancing Girl"

"The Dancing Girl", an artifact found in Mohenjo-daro, is around 4500 years old. The 10.8 cm long bronze statue was found in 1926 in a house in the ancient city. She was British archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler's favorite statuette, as he said in a 1973 television program:

"There is her... pouting lips and insolent look in the eyes. She's about fifteen years old I should think, not more, but she stands there with bangles all the way up her arm and nothing else on. A girl perfectly, for the moment, perfectly confident of herself and the world. There's nothing like her, I think, in the world".

John Marshall, one of the excavators at Mohenjo-daro, described her as a vivid impression of the young ... girl, her hand on her hip in a half-impudent posture, and legs slightly forward as she beats time to the music with her legs and feet.^[7]

"The Priest King"

A seated male sculpture is the so-called "Priest King" (even though there is no evidence that either priests or kings ruled the city). Archaeologists discovered the sculpture in Lower town at Mohenjo-daro in 1927. It was found in an unusual house with ornamental brickwork and a wall niche and was lying between brick foundation walls which once held up a floor.

This bearded sculpture wears a fillet around the head, an armband, and a cloak decorated with trefoil patterns that were originally filled with red pigment.

Surviving structures at Mohenjo-daro.