Page 307 - The Tigris Expedition

The Tigris Expedition
;y build-up of the human species during the last five millennia. With
this in mind a visitor to Mohenjo-Daro will be left with the
. impression that the creators of this city with all it contained had
either in record time surpassed all other human generations in
inventiveness, or that, like later Aryans, they were immigrants
; bringing with them centuries of cultural inheritance.
There is only one opinion among scholars: the city of
Mohenjo-Daro was built according to prc-conceivcd plans by
! expert city architects within a rigidly organised society. The plan­
ning of the city was one adhered to, but never surpassed, by
subsequent town planners in Central and West Asia for four
thousand years. Even at the beginning of our own century few of
: the lesser towns maintained an equally high cultural standard.
:>
The first impression on approaching the ghost city is little
different from that of a Sumerian town: a central elevation with a
? temple surrounded below by a labyrinth of streets and ruins.
Originally, however, this temple did not belong there; the Bud­
dhists fifteen hundred years ago had unfortunately modified the
summit of the original structure and built their own shrine in the
form of a circular mud-wall with a number of monk’s cells on the
nearest terraces below. But the original foundation of the summit
sanctuary was square and stepped, and the general impression was
that of a terraced pyramid hill converted to suit the monks.
As we walked between the brick walls, some of which have
! survived from tall, two-story buildings, we automatically lowered
our voices as if in respect for a sanctuary. There were no large
temples, no spectacular palaces, but evidence of a level living
standard, although the largest houses seemed to have been clustered
> in the central part, up along the terraces towards the elevated shrine
a x I now dominated by the Buddhist ruins. The original planners of the
city had started with a clear concept of what they wanted, laying out
parallel streets from either side of the oblong central elevation.
I These streets, running north-south and cast-west, were straight and
l broad, some regular avenues up to thirty feet wide, dividing and
subdividing the city into rectangular blocks, each 400 yards long
and 200 or 300 yards wide. The walls were built of burnt brick by
skilled masons. Most of the houses have their doors and sparse
window openings towards the narrow side-lanes, accessible only to
pedestrians, as if to avoid the noise and dust from the main streets
where, judging by local art, wheeled carts pulled by pairs of oxen,
and occasionally by elephants, would pass with building materials
and merchandise. What impressed most was the evidence apparent
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