WEBVTT - Mohenjo Daro 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:04.640 Welcome to steph you missed in history class from how 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:14.160 Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:18.200 I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Okay, Tracy 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:20.880 and listeners. I sort of have to apologize because I 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:23.360 did not mean to do too ancient cities as topics 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:28.600 so close together. I think it's fine. We recently did Ephesus, 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:30.920 and so I was like, Okay, and you know, we've 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:34.440 talked about before how we try to cycle through things 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:36.320 so we're not doing the same topic over and over. 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:38.599 And I know I have definitely been guilty of doing 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:41.880 a lot of biographies lately. So this time I was like, Okay, 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:44.040 we did an ancient city. I want to do a 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:47.080 history mystery this time around. And that actually led me 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:52.720 to today's topic, which it turns out is another ancient city. Uh. 0:00:52.720 --> 0:00:55.840 This city has a unique identity in that, in some 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:59.200 ways it kind of lacks identity. That is the mystery 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:03.000 of it. We don't know much about the people who 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:05.360 lived there because most of the ideas of the cultural 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:08.720 identity come from analysis of the ruins of the city itself, 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:12.160 and there are some gaps there about what the people 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:14.480 that lived there might have been. Like, uh, so we 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:18.120 are talking today about Mohenjo Daro. We've had some other 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:23.319 ancient cities that have a similar lack of knowledge about 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:26.480 what the people who lived there or didn't live there. 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:29.039 We're like, like, I remember when we talked about Poverty Point, 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:32.360 there was a lot of debate about how exactly that 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:36.600 space was used. Um, but yeah, there's just sort of 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:42.800 a a lot that we're gleaning from the side itself, 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:45.720 right which, and we'll talk about it more, but that 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:50.120 has led to some very different interpretations of the ruins 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:52.480 and the artifacts that have been found there. So it's 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:56.520 kind of an interesting examination of how it makes me 0:01:56.560 --> 0:01:59.040 think a lot about how our current culture will be 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:03.160 misinterpreted by the archaeologists of the future, presumably from space. 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:09.360 So Mahenjo Daro is in the Indus River valley in 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:14.200 the Sinned province of present day southern Pakistan. It's it's 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:17.120 about two miles or three kilometers away from the Indus 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:21.079 River and the city was built around b c. E. 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:23.919 And so that means it's construction was happening at the 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:27.359 same time as the Great Pyramids of Egypt. The size, 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:31.160 organization and evidence of an industry of regulated trade have 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:34.320 all led archaeologists to believe that Mahenjo Daro was one 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:37.600 of the most important cities of the Indus Valley civilization, 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:43.520 also called the Harappan civilization. The other ancient Indus Valley 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:46.400 city you may have heard about is Harappa, which is 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:50.280 in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Mahenjo Daro is four 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:53.680 hundred miles it's about six hundred and forty kilometers southeast 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:57.639 of Harappa, and it's unclear whether Mahenjo Daro and Harappa 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:00.400 were active at the same time or whether one came 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:03.720 before the other, but Mahenjo Daro is one of the 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:06.600 first known urban centers, and it is the largest and 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:10.800 best preserved of the ancient Indus Valley civilization cities. The 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:13.800 name Mohenjo Daro you'll sometimes see written out a number 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:16.600 of different ways that vary in how they use spacing 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:20.800 and hyphen nation. Sometimes it's Mohendo with a hyphen, Sometimes 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:24.000 it's all together as one word. It means mound of 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:26.560 the dead. But that is of course not the name 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:30.040 that the city was called when it was inhabited. That's 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:32.320 the name that was given to it by archaeologists, and 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:35.440 we really don't know what people living there called it 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.120 while they were living there. One of the things that's 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:41.600 unique to Mahenjo Daro is its lack of governmental structures. 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:44.920 There is a marketplace, and there are trading spaces and 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:48.680 their public spaces, but there are no palaces. There is 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:52.280 no clear evidence of any sort of hierarchical leadership structure. 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:56.200 Based on its well organized and thoughtful layout and design, 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:59.120 Mohenjo Daro may have been a seat of power, but 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:03.080 we still can't quite figure out exactly with any certainty 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:07.400 how it was governed. The city covers two forty hectars, 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:09.520 which is nearly six hundred acres, so that makes it 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:13.520 about five times the size of the Vatican. Mahento Daro 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:16.560 has two districts which have been named the Citadel and 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:20.000 the Lower Town, and again these are names that archaeologists 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:24.680 have labeled them with. The tallest of the Mohino Daro 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:28.800 mounds is the home of the citadel. The Great Bath 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:32.239 is perhaps the most impressive structure of the citadel section 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:34.760 of the city. It is also probably the most famous 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.840 part of the city. This bath is massive. It is 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:40.880 thirty nine ft that's twelve meters by twenty three ft 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:43.560 that's seven ms and the depth of the pool is 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.839 eight feet, which is two point five ms. The bath 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:50.159 was constructed with bricks that were mortared with gypsum, and 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:52.440 then to make it water tight, the whole thing was 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:56.520 sealed with bitumen to enter an exit. There were stairs 0:04:56.520 --> 0:05:00.599 for bathers on either end of the bath. This pool 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:05.360 at Mohando Daro predated Roman bath by about two hundred years, 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:08.280 but it was just as impressive as those later structures. 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:11.880 A nearby well supplied the bath with water and water 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:15.640 was discarded from the bath via a corbelled drain. Because 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:18.280 of its size and location in the citadel section of 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:20.640 the city, it is believed that the Great Bath was 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:24.920 used for group bathing, possibly as part of rituals, and this, 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:28.719 combined with the other advanced bathroom facilities and draining systems 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:31.680 of the city, have led to the conclusion that cleanliness 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:35.200 was deeply important to the culture of the city. While 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:38.680 the city had numerous gathering places, it lacked temples or 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:43.200 other obviously religious structures, and the Great Bath has sometimes 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:46.680 been suggested as a possible temple. But there's also a stupa, 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:49.640 which is a Buddhist structure and that shaped like a dome. 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:54.040 But the stupa at Mohando Daro was built long after 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:57.479 the city was abandoned. It's estimated that the structure was 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:00.160 added to the citadel mound as late as the or 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:03.400 two hundred. Yeah, we'll talk about the timeline of when 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:07.160 the city was no longer active, but that is long 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:09.880 after it. So basically like new structures were built on 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:13.240 top of ruins and that is how that stupa stands 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:16.880 so high. H The so called Lower Town of Mohenjo 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:19.960 Daro is based on a grid system, just like any 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:23.760 modern city. Really, it's sectioned off into blocks with barriers 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.839 constructed from baked mud bricks as well as mud bricks 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:29.479 that are made in the non big style, which is 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:32.440 like mud and straw, and then mud was also applied 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:35.160 to the brick walls to seal them and minimize erosion. 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.440 The lower Town section of the city may have supported 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:42.599 as many as twenty thousand to forty thousand residents. It 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:48.520 appears that the city enjoyed a certain level of egalitarian wealth. Ivory, gold, 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:53.880 and semi precious stones have been found all throughout Mohenjo Daro. Additionally, 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.200 most of the homes seem to have had the same 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:58.800 basic level of amenities. Just about every house had a 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:02.560 toilet and a bath that connected to the city's drainage system. 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:05.240 They are also stairs at most of the homes, suggesting 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:09.720 either a second story or a terrace roof. Yeah, there 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:16.240 are very few kind of what we would consider indicators 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:19.840 of like a lower class residents area. Uh. And some 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:22.840 of those again are in those those areas that are 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:25.560 built on top of other ruins, so it does seem 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:28.480 again very egalitarian. Uh. And there are also some theories 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:31.640 that that second story or terrorist roof may have been 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:36.800 part of an effort to avoid flooding. The record of 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:39.960 art in Mohenjo Daro is a little bit sparse. Any 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:43.600 decorative elements in the architecture are long gone, and there 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:46.280 isn't a whole lot of sculpture to indicate the values 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:48.240 of the people of the city in terms of their art. 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:50.560 There are a few examples, some of which we're going 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:52.400 to talk about in just a bit, but for the 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:55.720 most part, it has been small pieces like jewelry or 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:59.360 little you know, bits of sculpture that have survived. Mohenjo 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.480 Daro call lapsed as a center of civilization about six 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:05.880 hundred years into its life sometime around nine b C, 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:10.440 but the cause of that collapse is unknown. A shift 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:12.640 in the Indus River might have been to blame because 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:15.520 it would have really impacted the vitality of a city 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:20.520 that was depending on river transported trade. There have also 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.360 been theories that the city flooded due to the river shifting, 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:25.640 and that some of the technology that the city used 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:29.120 to control water flow actually caused standing water in the 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:32.439 city streets for a prolonged period of time. But again, 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:35.000 while there is evidence of some flood damage, this is 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:38.720 still speculative. We just don't have enough hard evidence, and 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:42.239 we do know that the entire Indus reverse civilization experienced 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:47.040 a steep decline around that the sort of landmark year 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:50.440 of nineteen hundred BC. Coming up, we will talk about 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:54.880 the excavation that uncovered Mohanzo Daro after thousands of years 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.840 uh shifting. Sands and soil had covered the site during 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:07.520 that time. But first we will have a little sponsor break. 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:10.760 As we mentioned before, we went to break over time, 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:13.920 Mohenjo Daro was covered with soil and it wasn't until 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:17.320 the early nineteen twenties that the city was rediscovered, and 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:19.800 at this time the city was first identified among a 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:23.040 series of mounds, again in the Indus River valley. The 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:26.880 mounds were mostly covering the city and really the citadel 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:29.000 was the part that was most apparent, and it wasn't 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:32.679 until nineteen twenty two, as those mounds started to be excavated, 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:37.040 that the significance and massiveness of this find was truly identified. 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:42.079 In the nineteen twenties, multiple excavations were conducted on Mohenjo Daro. 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:45.720 They were headed by the Archaeological Survey of India and 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:50.120 they were conducted by both British and Indian archaeologists. Excavations 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:53.520 continued up until the nineteen sixties when all the excavations 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:57.680 were shut down due to concern over the structures being damaged. 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:00.719 The weather was a factor, the that they had been 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:04.160 uncovered also exposed them to the elements more. There have 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:08.480 been approved excavations since that time. Those have been conducted 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:12.720 under careful scrutiny and have used non invasive techniques. The 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:17.440 Pakistani Antiquities Act ninety five put some protections in place 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:21.120 making it illegal to steal from or to face protected antiquities, 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.400 which included Mahenjo Daro, and the city actually became a 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:29.080 UNESCO World Heritage Site in nineteen eighty. So throughout the 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:33.280 many excavations that have gone on at Mohenjo Daro, thousands 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:36.480 of small artifacts have been recovered from the ruins, and 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:38.600 we're going to talk about two of the most famous 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:43.280 ones and some ongoing examination and theorizing about what they 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:47.800 mean and their origins and value. So the Dancing Girl 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:51.640 is probably the most important, certainly the most well known 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:55.320 artifact of those collected at the Mahenjo Daro site. It's 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:57.840 a small bronze figure. It's about ten and a half 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:01.000 inches tall, that's twenty six point seven cent meters, and 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:04.439 it depicts a woman who is nude save her jewelry. 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:06.680 And the figure has what appears to be curly hair 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:09.480 pulled back and a necklace which looks almost like a 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:12.760 shell on a chain or accord. On her right arm, 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:16.240 which is quite long and lithes are two bracelets, ones 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:18.720 it's just above the elbow and one at the wrist. 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:22.120 And in contrast, the left arm of the figure is 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:24.719 covered in what looked like bengals from just below the 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:27.079 shoulder all the way down to the wrist, and if 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:30.960 you count those little nubs that indicate Bengals, there twenty 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:34.240 five of them at all. Whether the Dancing Girl depicts 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:37.560 someone native to the Indus Valley or an African woman 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:40.720 has been part of the debate about the piece. There 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:43.840 are indications that there there may have been trade going 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:47.600 on between Africa and and this valley inhabitants a lot 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:49.320 of times when there was trade going on. There are 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:54.800 also people from the different places living there. But the 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:58.679 identity of the dancing girls inspirational woman is still an 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:02.240 issue that people don't agree on. There has been a 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:05.600 case made that her features, including her long limbs, more 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:09.160 resemble an African woman, but her adornmant her adornments and 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:14.920 her hairstyle echo more of Indian women throughout history. In 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:19.679 two sixteen, a controversial paper was published in Itti Haas, 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:22.040 which is the Hindi journal of the Indian Council of 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:26.560 Historical Research, and that paper, authored by Dakur Prasad Verma, 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:29.560 claims that the dancing girl is a representation of the 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:33.240 Hindu goddess Parvati, the goddess of love, fertility and strength, 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:35.640 and that is the first time that that idea has 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.320 been floated and it garnered a lot of press, but 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:41.959 it also got a lot of criticism. The primary driver 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:45.120 for his conclusion is that Shiva is also represented in 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:48.439 some pieces found at Mohenzo Daro, and that if images 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:50.800 of Shiva are present, it only makes sense for his 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:54.280 wife Parvati to also appear. But even that assertion that 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:57.840 those other images or Shiva has been contested. But that's 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:00.920 not the only recent controversy surrounding the Dancing Girl. The 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:06.720 other is one of ownership. In Pakistani lawyer jeff ed 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:10.320 Ikabal Jeffrey filed a motion insisting that the Dancing Girl 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:14.880 should be returned to Pakistan's Lahore Museum, and according to 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:18.160 this motion, the statue was on loan to the National 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:21.479 Arts Council of India and was never returned to Pakistan. 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:24.760 It's currently in the collection of the National Museum in 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:28.480 New Delhi. But the counter story is that the Dancing 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:33.120 Girl was moved before British India was partitioned into India 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.640 and Pakistan in the nineteen fifties. The partitioning is its 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:44.480 own complicated story um but that that assertion means that 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.240 Pakistan has no right to make the demand for its return. 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:51.000 There's not really been a lot of movement in uh 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.560 in this since that motion was originally filed. Yeah, if 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:57.080 there has, it really hasn't been published anywhere that I 0:13:57.080 --> 0:14:01.000 could locate. The dancing girl was discovered in ninety six 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:04.880 by Indian archaeologist D. R. Sanni and since then her 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:08.000 meaning in terms of religious significance has been debated, and 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:13.240 that discussion continues to present day. Most statue artifacts recovered 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:16.200 from Mohenjo Daro are terra cotta and a handful or 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:21.640 carved stone, but this bronze figure is a rarity. She's 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:25.440 even more rare because while there are other cast metal 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:28.320 pieces in the area, they tends to be tools and 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:33.000 decorative adornments, so a cast sculpture stands out as significant. 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:37.240 To create any cast metal object, the Harapans would carve 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:40.360 it in wax and then place wet clay around the 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:43.680 carving to dry and create a mold. And then they 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:45.800 would heat the mold to melt the wax and pour 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:48.680 it out through carefully drilled holes. This would leave a 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:51.440 negative mold which would then be cast with an alloy, 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:53.840 and this was a one time use mold. They would 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:57.880 have to be broken to reveal the final piece. Another 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:01.320 important artifact from the city is a stone sculpture, which 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.960 was named the Priest King by archaeologists, even though there 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:07.600 is nothing to indicate that he was either of those things, 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:10.400 and this is a partial piece. It is just the 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:13.960 upper portion of the torso and one broken arm, and 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.640 the head is very stylized, featuring a face that is 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:20.040 proportionately large for the head and a beard sculpted with 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:23.440 deep vertical lines to create a representation of hair texture. 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:26.320 His hair on his head is slicked back, and an 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:29.920 ornamental headband encircles his head and then has a tiny 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:33.120 circle at the forehead like an ornamental piece. Over one 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:36.040 of the figures shoulders, there's a cloth drape and it's 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:40.680 sculpted with ornamental circle and trifoil motifs. The top of 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:43.480 the head appears to have been sliced flat, and the 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:46.920 flat area is uncarved with no detail, so people have 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:49.680 speculated that there may have been a head dress piece 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:53.680 that sat on top of it. Similar larger sculptures have 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:55.720 a bun that's on top of the head, so there's 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:59.200 also been theories that a similar hairstyle might have been 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:01.440 what was intended to sit on this flat portion of 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:04.400 the head. It's also possible that the back of the 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:07.760 head was intact initially and somehow it was sheared off 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:12.520 by accident. Yeah, there are also some holes drilled into 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:15.960 the uh the head on the sides that people have 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:19.040 suggested might be to place like a necklace or some 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:22.000 other type of like neck adornment. But I read one 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.640 interesting analysis that positive that it was actually those holes 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:29.000 were actually ways that whatever that ornamental piece that sat 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:31.760 on top was hooked to the head so it would 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:34.360 stay secure. It's an interesting piece. Like I said, not 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:37.600 everybody agrees on what what any of these things are 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:41.920 and what their their various details are about. The Priest King, 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:44.680 as I mentioned, is broken off just at the waist 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.760 or just above the waist, so the intact section is 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:50.640 just a little less than seven inches at seventeen point 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:53.840 seven centimeters tall, and he is part of the collection 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:57.840 of the National Museum of Pakistan at Karachi. We're about 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:01.200 to get into an interesting part of the modern mythology 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:04.000 around the Mohendo Daro sites, but first we will pause 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:13.959 for another quick word from sponsors. We have certainly mentioned 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:16.199 this already in this podcast, but in the case of 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:20.680 a site like this one where archaeologists and researchers find themselves. 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:23.000 Having to guess at the history of a civilization and 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:27.720 culture is pretty natural for competing theories to emerge. As 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.399 a side note, if you're wondering whether a system of 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:34.080 writing might help figure out the many issues of confusion 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:38.960 over Mohends history, the Harappan civilization did have one. We 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:43.399 think there are symbols on various excavated artifacts that do 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:47.040 look like they might represent a language. But this in 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:50.359 this script or Harappan script as it's known, has not 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:55.240 ever been deciphered. Yeah, there is again debate over whether 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:57.480 or not that's actually what it is, even if it 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:02.600 is a language. So the massacre myth of Mahenjo Daro 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:05.879 is one that began in its early excavations and it 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:09.520 persists to this day. It's kind of sensational, so people 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:12.679 like to keep it going. In the nineteen thirties, it 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:16.600 was widely publicized that something terrible had happened at Mahenjo 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:19.760 Daro because a number of skeletal remains were found that 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:23.679 appeared to have died gruesomely. The narrative put forth in 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:25.760 the first half of the twentieth century was at the 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:29.480 city of Mohenjo Daro was wiped out by Indo Aryan invaders. 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:33.440 There's not really evidence to support that idea. For one thing, 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:36.840 all of the bodies found during the early excavations were 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:40.119 in the lower city, not in the citadel, and it 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.760 seems like if people were running for cover or help, 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:45.879 they would have run to the citadel, not into the 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:50.199 lower city protection. There were no bodies at all found 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:53.440 in the citadel. No weapons of any kind have been 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:57.680 found to indicate that there was any sort of conflict. Yeah. 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:02.439 I mean, if you uh grow up almost anywhere in 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:05.879 the United States, like there are people always finding things 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:09.240 like arrowheads and like they're just if there is a battle, 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:13.120 stuff gets dropped. That's how it goes. Nothing of that 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:17.360 kind has been found in Mahenjo daro Uh. And there 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:19.960 is also a high likelihood that not all of these 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.680 remains are from the same time, and that was actually 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:26.400 debated even among the archaeologists who first uncovered these remains. 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:29.400 As you recall, we mentioned earlier that the city Stupa 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:32.639 was built long after the Harrabin civilization is believed to 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:35.199 have ended, so there were people making use of the 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:39.119 city even after it was largely abandoned, and all of 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:43.360 those time periods maybe coming into play here. Later theories 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:45.840 about the bodies that diverged from the idea of an 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.840 attack or a mask her put forth the idea that 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:51.879 the few people who remained after most of the city 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:55.120 was empty may have been caught in a flood or 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:57.280 a drought that was brought on by the shifting of 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:01.120 the Indus River, or some kind of pestilence. So later 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:04.080 theories about these bodies that diverged from the idea of 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:07.080 an attack or a massacre put forth the idea that 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:09.920 the few people who remained after most of the city 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:12.400 was empty might have been caught up in some kind 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:14.720 of flood or drought that was brought about by the 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:18.120 shifting of the Indus River, or maybe some kind of pestilence. 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:22.000 It's also possible that a series of floods overtook the 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:26.360 city over a prolonged period of decline. There's a high 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:29.440 likelihood that not all of the remains are even from 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:32.320 the same period, So it's also likely that there's no 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:36.080 one cause of death for all of these bodies. Yeah, 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:40.320 sometimes you'll see on kind of sensational sites the secrets 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:42.760 of the massacre at Mohenjo Daro, and they kind of 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:47.520 suggest there's some cover up of something nefarious, but really 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:50.680 it's it's just kind of one of those cases where 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:54.719 it's probably not as dramatic as we maybe think. In 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:58.160 the nineteen sixty four article titled the Mythical Massacre at 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:02.600 Mohenjo Daro, archaeologist George F. Dale's wrote, quote, the enemy 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:05.600 of the Hora Pans was nature, aided and embedded by 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:09.440 the hora Pans themselves, who accelerated the spoiliation of the 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:14.240 landscapes through improper irrigation practices and by denuding the watersheds 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:19.159 through overgrazing and deforestation. Just less glamorous and exciting than 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:22.200 a massacrer, but also makes a lot more sense given 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:25.560 the evidence we have. So there probably wasn't any sort 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:29.040 of mass attack on Mahenzo Daro. And the present day, though, 0:21:29.080 --> 0:21:31.920 the site is in real danger and the threat once 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:36.080 again comes from the elements. Salt in the groundwater is 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:40.120 causing the bricks, which are really fragile, to erode very rapidly. 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:43.640 There are very wide shifts in the temperature that are 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:46.840 similarly robbing the masonry of its strength, and a lot 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:50.440 of the walls that were uncovered in the early party 0:21:50.520 --> 0:21:55.560 the twentieth century are crumbling. The ongoing problem of water 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:59.600 has long been an irritant to researchers. Because of the 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:03.040 water table in the area, digging has always had challenges. 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:06.480 But water is a very real threat to the very 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:09.600 existence of the Mahenjo Daro site because, in addition to 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:13.520 the salinity issue uh and the water table, rainfall is 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:19.240 also breaking apart. The fragile brickwork in late monstones flooded Pakistan, 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:23.920 and Mohenjo Daro was severely impacted by those The stupid 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:26.920 developed cracks and the base of the citadel mound near 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:31.320 the Great Bath had several structural structural failures yeah it 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:35.200 started to collapse in a couple of places. One conservation 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:38.080 effort that has been attempted to save the city's ruins 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:40.960 involved the use of a mud slurry that was applied 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:43.200 to the delicate brickwork in the hopes that it would 0:22:43.200 --> 0:22:46.760 protect it. But when that fresh mud dried and fell away, 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:50.239 it was often taking parts of the original structure with it. 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:54.080 In some cases, modern bricks have been slotted into spaces 0:22:54.119 --> 0:22:57.040 where old ones have crumbled, creating a weird mishmash of 0:22:57.040 --> 0:23:00.679 structural strength that is simply not up to conservation standards. 0:23:01.280 --> 0:23:03.639 In recent years, it has even been suggested that the 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:07.080 whole site should be reburied to protect it from the elements. 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:11.120 After years of falling out of the Pakistani government's jurisdiction, 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:14.560 conservation and care for Mohenjo Daro is now in the 0:23:14.600 --> 0:23:18.440 hands of sind provincial authorities and then under that stewardship, 0:23:18.560 --> 0:23:21.879 a committee has been established to address the technical needs 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:25.359 of trying to preserve the site. Yeah, there was also 0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:29.720 an instance in fourteen where as part of a cultural 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:34.800 um celebration, there were a lot of people there at 0:23:34.840 --> 0:23:38.679