The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c11.3

c11.3

The artificial platform of the citadel is built of mud-brick and mud, and excavation in 1950 showed that its construction dates from the optimum phase of the city's development as we know it, the so-called "Intermediate Period" of the original excavators: the phase to which great public buildings such as the Bath and the Granary on the citadel also belong. But under it lie other buildings and phases to an unexplored depth. The immense quantities of silt brought down annually by the Indus floods have built up the river-bed and indeed the whole river-plain and so have raised the water-table hereabouts by not less (and probably more) than 15 ft. No excavator therefore has yet reached the original ground-level, and an attempt to do so in 1950 demonstrated the difficulty of the task. In March of that year the water-level immediately west of the citadel lay 16 ft. below the present surface of the plain; and a determined effort, with the aid of two motor pumps, enabled the excavators to dig down only a further 10 ft. before the stepped sides of a wide cutting, riven by a multitude of tiny springs, collapsed beyond recovery in the time available. The deep diggings of 1950 produced, however, one important indication: the building of the citadel corresponded with no break in the cultural sequence and, if the work of foreigners, can be ascribed only to dynastic domination.