Page 308 - The Tigris Expedition

Ill the Indus Valley in Search of Mcluhha
throughout of a high sanitary concept. Although there were no
impressive palaces or other structures that indicated the megalo­
mania of a totalitarian emperor, the common citizens were pro­
vided with a complex system of sewers: the streets were lined
with brick-built drains, and at intervals the large brick slabs cover­
ing these channels were provided with proper manholes by which
the sewage workers were able to remove debris, some of which the
excavating archaeologists found piled beside a manhole.
There were also fresh-water conduits among the houses, and a
big public bath or swimming-pool, possibly built for cleansing
rituals. It measures 38 feet by 22 feet, is 8 feet deep and it was
waterproofed by a double wall of bricks set in asphalt, with another
layer of asphalt one inch thick between the walls. Other than the
well-designed pool, too deep to stand in when full, there was a
pillared hall obviously intended for ceremonies, and another build­
ing with extra solid walls and a cloistered court of unknown
purpose. But there has been a wealth of discoveries from within the
city to give life to all these empty walls. The former residents had
left utensils, images and ornaments of enduring materials ranging
from basalt and pottery to bronze, gold and precious stones. All that
was not perishable has been recovered by careful excavation.
Among these discoveries are the inscribed and beautifully deco­
rated seals of the kind that had also found their way to ancient
trading partners in Mesopotamia and the gulf islands of Failaka and
Bahrain. Whilst we cannot read this script, the miniature illustra­
tions of deities, anthropomorphic beasts and mythical scenes
incised on the seals leave us with the impression of an art style as
well as a theocracy and cosmology strikingly similar to those of the
Sumerians, and to a lesser extent to those of ancient Egypt too.
Numerous small pottery figurines and a few excellent bronze
statuettes depict normal human beings and everyday life. Small
ceramic models show women kneeling to grind flour for bread,
'while bronze figurines represent others adorned with jewellery and
elegantly posed as for a dance. There are pottery models of men
with pairs of oxen pulling two-wheeled carts, and bronze minia­
tures of beautiful chariots. Some of these figurines, like the cere­
monial ceramic bird running on two wheels, are so like those of the
two other great civilisations of the same epoch as to confound
the experts.
One can easily imagine the life of the people behind the aban­
doned utensils and waste found among the ruins: the farmer’s
digging tools and a sample of his figs, grain or cultivated cotton; the

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