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New insights on Urbanism and Architecture of the Indus Valley Civilisation - A. Didier
Aurore Didier - "New insights on Urbanism and Architecture of the Early Centuries to the Indus Valley Civilisation. New Data from the 2015-2022 excavations at Chanhu-daro.”
May 16th, 2023
Dr. Aurore Didier: Chargée de recherches (CRCN), CNRS – UMR 7041 « ArScAn » Archéologie de l’Asie centrale, responsable du programme « Indus-Balochistan » and Directrice de la «Mission Archéologique Française du Bassin de l’Indus»
Since the first excavations at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa a century ago, the Indus Civilisation studies have seen major advances that provided new insights into the settlement patterns, urbanism and architectural developments in the Greater Indus Valley. However, crucial questions on the emergence of the Indus Valley Civilization in the different areas of its territory or its internal evolution over the course of about six hundred years (2600/2500-1900 BCE) still need to be answered. One of the major challenges is indeed to better document the urbanism and the architecture of the early centuries of this civilisation, in particular during the first “Indus period” dated to 2600/2500-2300 BCE. In Sindh, this period is substantiated by quite limited field data due to environmental and/or stratigraphic constraints.
For this reason, the French Archaeological Mission in the Indus Basin (MAFBI) in cooperation with the Culture, Tourism, Archives and Antiquities Department, Government of Sindh, resumed new fieldwork at Chanhu-daro in 2015. This Indus Valley Civilization site, considered as one of its major craft centres specializing in lapidary activities, was discovered by N.G. Majumdar (Archaeological Survey of India) in 1931 and excavated by the first American Archaeological Expedition to India led by E.J.H. Mackay in 1935-36.
The fieldwork carried out by the MAFBI mission includes extensive excavations and has exposed over 6,500 square meters of mud-brick architecture, belonging to both residential neighbourhoods and specialized craft quarters dating from the first Indus period.
This lecture will present these recent discoveries that have significantly challenged the previous interpretive models of the city foundation and layout.
