An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s9.56

v1.c9.s9.56

To come to the other thesis, viz. that of an entirely indigenous growth. The position in this regard is as follows. Well before the emergence of the Indus civilization, say in the first quarter of the 3rd millennium B.C., there did exist in the Indus valley quite a few settlements which in course of time may have contributed in one way or another towards the emergence of the Indus civilization itself: for example, Amri in Sind, Jalilpur and Sarai Khola in Punjab, Gumla in N.W.F.P., and so on. Even at Harappa, there did exist a pre-Harappa [4.8] settlement and at Mohenjo-daro such as a likelihood is suggested by the yet unfathomed several metres of occupational debris underneath the mature Indus phase. Indeed the overall extent of these pre-Harappa settlements was in no way less than that of the succeeding Harappa ones in so far as the n.-w. part of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent is concerned.