Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c11.1

v1.c11.1

MOHENJO-DARO, the ‘Mound of the Dead’, stands on what is locally known as ‘The Island’ — a long, narrow strip of land between the main river (Indus) bed and the Western Nara loop, its precise position being 27°19' N by 68° 8' E, some 7 miles by road from Dokri on the north-western railway and 25 from Larkana town. The mounds which hide the remains of the ancient city or rather a series of cities, are conspicuous from a distance in the riverine flat — the highest of them near the north-west corner, rising to a height of some 70 feet, the others averaging from 20 to 30 feet above the plain. The actual area covered by the mounds is now more than about 240 acres, but there is little doubt that floods and erosion have greatly diminished their extent, and that the deep alluvium deposited by the river has covered all the lower and outlying parts of the city, (Marshall I, p. 1 hereafter written as simply MS-I, 1).