The Indus Civilization c4.20

c4.20

Mr. Hargreaves and Mr. Vats in the course of their excavations at Mohenjo-daro in 1925-6 found several groups of skeletons, one comprising fourteen in a large room and another of six in a street. All the remains, some of women and young children, lay in very contorted attitudes, and the people had evidently died a violent death. Excavation in a different part of the city has since laid bare other groups of skeletons, one being of especial interest. In this group the remains of some members of the party lay at the foot of a staircase leading down from a street to a well, while one, a woman, had nearly climbed up to the level of the street, but had succumbed on the top step (Pl. D, b). It was thought at first that epidemic disease must have been responsible for these deaths, but this theory was refuted later by the discovery of two more groups, each containing the remains of at least one decapitated person.