Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c13.40

c13.40

There is one burial at Mohenjo-daro, made in the ruins of a deserted courtyard of a house in the HR area, which seems to belong to the invaders rather than the invaded. Among a confused mass of fragments of a large pot, and other objects, such as small vases, beads, a shell spoon, etc., were a few bones and a human skull. One pot found with this group (the only one published) is of a type which we shall find recurring at Harappā in a cemetery on that site which is demonstrably later than the main Harappā occupation of the city, though its ornament rather recalls Kulli or Jhukar motifs. Surprisingly enough, the skull from this burial is that which clearly belongs to the Mongolian group – closely comparable, for instance, to the modern Naga type. If this is really a burial of one of the attackers of the Harappā civilization in its last days, it suggests a very mixed invading force, possibly including mercenaries. Can he have been a Gurkha?