An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s9.24

v1.c9.s9.24

Quite close to the dockyard was another structure which completes the picture of Lothal as a port. Over a podium there stood 12 rectangular blocks of mud-bricks in four rows of three each, accounting for a total area of 17×14 m. Intervening the blocks were passages about 1 m in width, evidently meant to by air-ducts below the superstructure which in all probability was of wood. This is suggested by the burnt sides of the passageways as also by the presence therein of charred wood. In these passages have also been found lumps of burnt or partly burnt earth bearing on the side impressions of typical Indus seals and on the other those of reeds and sometimes even cloth. The entire evidence is of a kind which suggests that in all probability the structure was a warehouse in which were temporarily lodged the incoming and outgoing goods, as in a dockyard complex even to this day.