The Indus Civilization c4.9

c4.9

Owing, however, to the fact that the bed of the Indus has risen some twenty feet or more in the course of the ages, it is impossible without very costly pumping machinery to explore the earliest levels of Mohenjo-daro; in one place, where the excavations have penetrated forty feet below the surface of one of the principal mounds, the objects found were identical with those of the later levels. Below this limit digging cannot continue, although it is obvious that the walls descend to yet lower levels in the now water-logged soil, and there is no doubt that the foundations of the city are of a much earlier date than the levels it has been possible to reach; yet there is no reason to suppose that the people who originally founded Mohenjo-daro were in any marked degree more primitive than its inhabitants in later days. Both bronze and copper were found in the lowest levels excavated, a fact which is not surprising, for the former metal was in common use in Sumer some five thousand years ago. But no Neolithic material has been discovered, so it is unlikely that the site was established as early as the Stone Age. The writer also considers it a mistake to term the Indus Valley civilization, as represented at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, chalcolithic, in spite of the fact that stone implements have been unearthed in both places. These stone implements are simple ribbon-flakes of flint which served as knives (Pl. K, 3), and specimens, together with the cores from which they were struck (Pl. K, 4), have been found in most of the houses; no doubt a knife of this type was cheaper than, and perhaps just as efficient for certain purposes as, a metal one. Another kind of stone implement discovered is rectangular in cross-section and not unlike a celt in form; it was probably a ploughshare, but these are very rare.