Mohenjo-daro ( Sindhi : ???? ?? ??? ; Urdu : ???? ????? ) is an ancient city in Pakistan . It was built around 2500 BCE and was the biggest town in the ancient Indus Valley civilization . It's one of the earliest big cities in the world, like the ones in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete, and Norte Chico. People also call it the 'Mound of the Dead Men'. ^[1]

It is in province of Sindh , Pakistan . The city was built around 2600 BC . It was one of the early urban settlements in the world. Mohenjo-daro existed at the same time as the civilization of ancient Egypt , Mesopotamia and Greece . The archaeological ruins of the city are designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In Pakistan, it is one of the national icons of the distant past. ^[2]

Historical context [ change | change source ]

Mohenjo-daro was built in the 26th century BC. ^[3] It was one of the largest cities of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, ^[4] which developed around 3000 BC from the prehistoric Indus culture. At its height, the Indus Civilization spanned much of what is now Pakistan and some parts of northwest India . It also had an outpost in Bactria . There were major urban centers at Harappa , Mohenjo-daro.

Mohenjo-daro was the most advanced city of its time, with remarkably sophisticated civil engineering and urban planning . ^[5] When the Indus civilization went into sudden decline around 1900 BC, Mohenjo-daro was abandoned. ^{[3] [6]}

Artifacts [ change | change source ]

The Dancing girl found in Mohenjo-daro is an artifact that is some 4500 years old. The 10.8 cm long bronze statue of the dancing girl was found in 1926 from a house in Mohenjo-daro. She was British archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler's favorite statuette, as he said in this quote from a 1973 television program:

"There is her... pouting lips and insolent look in the eyes. She's about fifteen years old I should think, not more, but she stands there with bangles all the way up her arm and nothing else on. A girl perfectly, for the moment, perfectly confident of herself and the world. There's nothing like her, I think, in the world".

John Marshall, one of the excavators at Mohenjo-daro, described her as a vivid impression of the young ... girl, her hand on her hip in a half-impudent posture, and legs slightly forward as she beats time to the music with her legs and feet. ^[7]

A seated male sculpture is the so-called "Priest King" (even though there is no evidence that either priests or kings ruled the city). Archaeologists discovered the sculpture in Lower town at Mohenjo-daro in 1927. It was found in an unusual house with ornamental brickwork and a wall niche and was lying between brick foundation walls which once held up a floor.

This bearded sculpture wears a fillet around the head, an armband, and a cloak decorated with trefoil patterns that were originally filled with red pigment.

References [ change | change source ]