Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c12.145

c12.145

Four hoards of similar jewellery from Mohenjo-daro seem, however, to have a different history, for they are all significantly from the latest occupation of the city, and probably belong to a time when it was already beginning to go downhill. We shall see in the next chapter that there is evidence that the end of the Harappā civilization was brought about, or at least precipitated, by barbarian inroads from the west, and the Mohenjo-daro hoards, some of them packed in silver jars and wrapped in cloth, are eloquent testimony to troubled times. They may have been hidden hastily by their original owners for safety during a raid, or they may represent loot gathered together by the raiders and left behind in a temporary retreat, but whatever their history they certainly tell of insecurity and the collapse of the old traditions of the Harappā kingdom.