Discovering the Harappan Civilisation

The Discovery of the Harappan Civilisation: From Confusion to Clarity

This section explains how the Harappan Civilisation was rediscovered by archaeologists. It wasn't a single event, but a gradual process of changing ideas, methods, and questions over nearly a century.

1. Cunningham’s Confusion (Mid-19th Century)

• The Problem: Alexander Cunningham, the first Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), was a pioneer, but his methods had a major blind spot. He relied heavily on written texts (like the accounts of Chinese Buddhist pilgrims) to guide his excavations. His main interest was the Early Historic period (c. 6th century BCE – 4th century CE).
• Why Harappa was Missed: Harappa was not mentioned by any Chinese pilgrim and was not an Early Historic city. So, when Harappan artefacts (like a unique seal) were found and given to him, he could not place them in his familiar timeline. He mistakenly thought Indian history began with the first cities in the Ganga valley.
• The Key Idea: Cunningham’s framework was too narrow. He was looking for a specific kind of history (text-based, Early Historic) and therefore missed the significance of a much older, non-literate civilisation.

2. A New Old Civilisation is Announced (Early 20th Century)

• The Breakthrough: In the early 1900s, archaeologists like Daya Ram Sahni (at Harappa) and Rakhal Das Banerji (at Mohenjodaro) found similar seals in layers that were definitely much older than the Early Historic levels. This was a crucial clue.
• The Conjecture: The discovery of identical seals at two different sites led to the idea that they were part of a single archaeological culture.
• The Announcement: In 1924, John Marshall (the new Director-General of the ASI) announced the discovery of a new civilisation in the Indus valley. This was confirmed when similar seals were found at Mesopotamian sites, proving it was contemporaneous with Mesopotamia.
• Marshall’s Method (A Flaw): Unlike Cunningham, Marshall was interested in everyday life. However, he excavated in regular horizontal units (measured uniformly across the mound), ignoring the stratigraphy (the natural layers of the mound). This meant artefacts from different time periods, found at different depths, were grouped together, losing their chronological context.

3. New Techniques and Questions (Post-1944)

• Wheeler’s Correction: R.E.M. Wheeler (Director-General from 1944) rectified Marshall’s mistake. He insisted on following the stratigraphy of the mound. He brought military precision to the digging, ensuring that artefacts were recorded according to the layer they were found in.
• The Concept of Stratigraphy: An archaeological site is formed by layers of debris (a mound). The study of these layers is called stratigraphy.
  • Occupational layers contain traces of human activity (artefacts, different colours/textures).
  • Sterile layers show abandonment (no traces of human activity).
  • General Rule: The lowest layers are the oldest, and the highest are the most recent. …