The Indus Civilization

Sudeshna Guha looks at the archaeology of the Indus Civilization, the Bronze Age phenomenon of South Asia, whose study began under the British and has continued since independence and partition of the country. 

'Not often has it been to archaeologists, as it was given to Schliemann at Tiryns and Mycenae, or to Stein in the deserts of Turkestan, to light upon the remains of a long forgotten civilization. It looks, however, at this moment, as if we were on the threshold of such a discovery in the plains of the Indus.'

In these words John Marshall, the British Director-General (1902-28) of the colonial Archaeological Survey of India, chose to announce the discovery of 'the prehistoric civilization of the Indus Valley' in The Illustrated London News (September 24th, 1924).

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