Although not far from Mumbai, this out-of-the-way location had been hard to reach. First, the trio had flown to Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan and the only one that offered air service to the site. Then they’d climbed aboard a small plane that made only one late-afternoon trip to Mohenjo-Daro daily. Once the team landed, a shuttle bus dropped them in front of the gates of the ancient city just as the sun was about to set. Since searching the ruins after dark was out of the question, they were forced to stay the night. Luckily, Pakistan’s Department of Archaeology provided a small guest house for visitors. There were only nine rooms, but the limited accommodations and simple food represented a literal oasis in the desert to the weary travelers. They ate dinner in silence and immediately adjourned to their rooms to get some rest. It wasn’t until they met for breakfast the next morning that any of them seemed alert enough to focus on the task at hand—combing a forgotten city for a fragment of a clue that would lead them to the next relic.
“It’s a pity the IVC trove keeper couldn’t meet us here.” Griffin had come up behind Cassie as she stood observing the ruin.
“Why not?”
“Called back to the States on business. We spoke over the phone in Karachi yesterday. He didn’t recall having seen a lily carving during excavation. If it’s to be found here, we’ll have to rely on your intuition to guide us.”
Cassie narrowed her gaze. “Looking at that giant brick pile, I wouldn’t know where to start.”
“Not to worry.” Griffin held up a folded sheet of paper and waved it at her. “I’ve acquired a map and a headful of facts regarding what we’ll see today.”
Cassie peered back inside the doorway. “Where’s Erik?”
“I thought he was right behind me.” Griffin turned to look around him in surprise.
“I went to get some more bottled water.” Erik hurried out to meet them, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. “The temperature is supposed to top a hundred degrees today.” He laughed wryly. “Good thing we weren’t here during the summer when it was really hot.”
Cassie eyed the wind-blown, sandy terrain. “Speaking of deserts, why would anybody build a city in a place as scorched and parched as this?”
“They wouldn’t,” Griffin replied. “Shall we?” He gestured that they should follow him down one of the trails leading to the ruins.
“What do you mean they wouldn’t?”
“Thousands of years ago, Mohenjo-Daro’s location would have been considered ideal. It was situated in the flood plain between the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra Rivers.”
“Let me guess. The rivers dried up?” the pythia ventured.
“In part,” the scrivener replied. “The Gaggar-Hakra dried up, and the Indus altered its course, but neither of those events was determinative. The critical issue was a decrease in monsoonal moisture. At the end of the last Ice Age, the rainy season in this part of the world could be depended upon to flood the river valleys and allow for bountiful harvests year after year. Over time, desiccation set in just as it had done in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. This once-thriving urban center fell into decay. Not only Mohenjo-Daro but all the other great cities of the IVC as well. A thousand towns which had been built in the river valleys between the Himalayas and the Arabian Sea disappeared.”
“And now the only thing that’s left is desert,” Cassie remarked.
Griffin stopped to consult his map when they came to a junction of several trails. “I believe we should start with the citadel mound. It’s the highest spot in Mohenjo-Daro and will give us a good view of the entire site. The mound is directly ahead.” He pointed toward a hill covered with a cluster of brick structures. The tower on the crest of the hill was capped by a dome.
In response to Cassie’s quizzical look, Griffin explained, “That stupa was built over the ruins by Buddhists in the fourth century. Stupas are devotional shrines which sometimes contain relics or the remains of Buddhist monks. This one was built atop the citadel tower long after the original inhabitants disappeared.”
The stupa was surrounded by smaller buildings at various elevations along the hillside. Although the rectangular walls varied in size, they were uniformly constructed of baked red brick. All were roofless and exposed to the sky. A quick inspection of their interiors showed nothing of any interest. The trio threaded their way through a maze of partition walls and narrow lanes to reach the top of the hill. From that vantage point, they stopped to gaze out over the city. The perimeter wall stretched at least three miles around. Aside from the citadel mound on which they stood, Mohenjo-Daro also contained a lower town. The pythia directed her attention to the partially-excavated settlement below but could see little more than rectangles that had once been houses and circles that may have been the tops of wells.
“I’m not sure what to make of all this,” she said, leaning against a wall as she studied the ruins in dismay.
“Well then, let me enlighten you.” Griffin once again checked his map, presumably to point out structures of interest, but she didn’t hear the rest of what he had to say.
Images flashed through her brain in quick succession like animated snapshots in a very old photo album. Images of what Mohenjo-Daro had been in its prime. There were people everywhere. Thousands of them: walking, working, talking. She saw oxen pulling carts laden with grain through the streets. Artisans in their shops crafting tools and jewelry. Farmers toiling in irrigated fields outside the city. Priestesses performing religious rites. Children playing in open-air courtyards. The entire landscape was green and glowing in the rich morning light. The air swirled with humidity, borne on breezes drifting up from the rivers flowing on either side of the town—
“Cass, are you alright?” Erik was shaking her arm. His face looked tense.
“Sure, why?” she murmured.
“We seem to have lost you.” Griffin’s expression appeared as troubled as Erik’s. “You were staring vacantly into space. We called, but you didn’t hear us.”
“Well, that’s new,” the pythia murmured in embarrassment. “I must have drifted off when I touched this.” She glanced ruefully at the wall against which she was leaning.
“So, you got a hit about this building? Something to do with the lily symbol?” The paladin touched the bricks skeptically.
“No, it wasn’t like one of my usual trances. This wasn’t about any specific item or place. It was...” Cassie shook her head to clear it. “It was everything.”
“Everything?” Griffin echoed, uncomprehending.
“Yeah, everything,” she asserted. “Everything and everybody that was here back in the day.” Straightening, she stepped forward a few paces to focus on the lower town. “There were thousands of people living here, but it wasn’t like any ancient city I can think of. There weren’t any temples or big fancy palaces. No statues of gods or kings. No soldiers with spears or swords keeping everybody else in line. I don’t think they needed that. In fact, I got the impression that they wouldn’t have understood a world like that. That wall down there...” She gestured to a fortification built along the southeast edge of the mound. “It wasn’t for defense. At least not at the time it was built. It was to keep the river from flooding the city during the rainy season. They were peaceful. Farmers mostly. They raised grain and kept livestock, though there were lots of craft people too and they traded their goods everywhere. The Indus was closer to the town back then, so they used boats to ship their cargo to other places. And it was like...”
She paused, trying to grasp the essence of what she’d seen. “I think they shared everything in common. This citadel mound is where they gathered. Kind of like a community center. There was a big warehouse where all the grain was stored.” She whirled about. “There!” She pointed to a half-excavated structure on the west side of the hill that was larger than the rest. “That’s where they collected the harvest from everybody and then divvied it up. Nobody went hungry. And they also held their religious rituals pretty much
right where we’re standing.” Cassie stopped speaking when she noticed the reaction of her companions. They were gaping at her in surprise.
“Uh, guys?” she prompted cautiously.
Griffin let out a deep breath as if he’d been punched in the stomach. “Forgive my astonishment. Your intuitive power has grown remarkably strong.” He gave Erik a sidelong look. “I think it caught us both unawares.”
“All the years I’ve been in the field, I never saw a pythia do that before,” Erik admitted.
“Do what?” Cassie asked.
“Channel an entire flipping city just by leaning against a pile of bricks, that’s what.”
“Oh,” she replied in a small voice.
“In essence, you’ve just summarized everything I was about to say regarding this civilization.” Griffin seemed crestfallen.
Not wanting to take the wind out of his sails, Cassie coaxed, “Tell it anyway. I probably forgot something important.”
“Very well, if you insist.” The scrivener cleared his throat self-consciously. “At the risk of being redundant, here’s what archaeologists have to say about the IVC. There is little doubt that they were a matristic culture which held women in high regard. Female grave goods tended to be more elaborate than that of males. DNA evidence shows that men were commonly buried with the families of their wives. This would indicate matrilineal and matrilocal customs. In addition, their statuary predominantly depicts female figurines, and a divine mother is assumed to have been the principal deity in their pantheon. Trade goods found at this site would indicate that these people had contact with merchants from as far away as Mesopotamia and Crete. Because their entire economy was based on agriculture and trade, they didn’t glorify military conquest. There is no evidence of an authoritarian male ruler or a standing army to enforce his will. What is true at Mohenjo-Daro is equally true of the other IVC sites. The structural uniformity of all their cities proves they were part of a common civilization that shared the same technology, social organization, and religious practices.”
Griffin paused and chuckled unexpectedly. “Of course, Cassie discovered all those things about the IVC in a matter of seconds. My dear pythia, if you continue at this rate, you’ll put me out of a job entirely.”
“But I didn’t get anything specific,” Cassie objected. “It was only an overall impression of what things were like.”
“That’s more than any archaeologist could get after a year of digging, toots,” Erik countered. “Take your victory lap.”
“Perhaps we can use your newfound abilities to answer a question that has puzzled observers from the very beginning,” the scrivener ventured.
“Ask away, but I’m not sure I’ll have the answer,” Cassie demurred.
Ignoring her uncertainty, Griffin pressed on. “Many of the features of this site have been explained by archaeologists as if Mohenjo-Daro were an overlord city-state obsessed with warfare. Take for example the fortification wall. The conventional rationale is that the wall was built for defense. Your vision shows that it was constructed to prevent flooding.” He turned to point upward at the tower capped by the stupa. “What about this? It’s called a citadel. In a medieval castle, the citadel would have been the last line of defense against an invading army. It would have served a military purpose. Is that what this citadel was used for?”
“Not hardly.” Cassie snorted in derision. “It was an observation tower.”
“What?” Erik squinted at her.
“They used it to watch the stars and track the movement of the planets,” she explained.
Griffin nodded approvingly. “That makes perfect sense when one considers how technologically-advanced these people were. They developed a precise system of weights and measures. Their streets were laid out in a grid pattern which demonstrates considerable engineering skill. It stands to reason that they would have created an equally sophisticated calendar system. To do so would have required an observatory where they could collect astronomical data.”
Griffin stopped speaking abruptly and wandered off to the left, leaving his colleagues to stare after him in bafflement.
“Where’s he going now?” Erik asked.
Cassie shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”
Chapter 15—The Pen Is Mightier Than the Truth
Cassie and Erik followed Griffin until he came to a sudden halt before a large square hole in the ground. The hole was roughly forty feet long, twenty-five feet wide and eight feet deep. It looked like a swimming pool with stairs on either end leading down to the bottom.
Gesturing toward the pool, the scrivener said, “This structure illustrates my point about the level of sophistication the Indus Valley people possessed.”
“Because they liked to take baths?” Erik ventured doubtfully.
“Of course not.” Griffin rolled his eyes. “I’m referring to the way this particular pool is designed. It’s known as the ‘Great Bath’ and was probably used for ritual purposes.” He paused, waiting for Cassie to confirm or deny his theory.
“You’re right about that,” she concurred. “I get the feeling that it was part of their religion.”
The scrivener continued. “The tank is made of waterproof brick. It has its own well to feed the inlet channels which filled the bath and an outlet drain to carry away waste water when the pool needed to be cleaned.”
“You mean like a sewer pipe?” Cassie’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“Yes, clay pipes carried waste water outside the city. And this wasn’t the only structure in Mohenjo-Daro with advanced plumbing. Most of the houses had running water and flush toilets. Clay pipes fed into covered sewer drains that ran down each street. All the waste flowed downstream into the river. Considering that the town’s population at its peak was forty thousand people, this sanitation system was a major feat of civic engineering. And it all occurred two thousand years before the Romans built their first aqueduct.”
“It makes you wonder how they developed all that technology,” Cassie said. “It’s almost as if it came from out of nowhere. One day, everybody is a gatherer-hunter in this part of the world and the next, boom, they’re living in houses with flush toilets. What gives?”
Griffin smiled knowingly. He sat down on the side of the Great Bath.
Cassie was about to do the same when Erik grabbed her elbow.
“Are you sure it’s safe to do that?” he asked.
“I’m pretty sure that whatever info I was meant to get has been gotten.” She sat down. “See, I’m still here.”
Erik took a seat beside her
The two of them transferred their attention back to Griffin.
“You were saying?” Cassie prompted.
“Quite right. I was about to reply to your question regarding advances in IVC technology. I believe you’re approaching the problem from the wrong end.”
“I am?”
“You’re viewing Mohenjo-Daro as if it represented the beginning of civilization in the Indus River Valley. I rather think it constituted the end of a very long cycle of innovation.”
Both his listeners treated him to a blank look.
“Allow me to explain. Mohenjo-Daro peaked between 2600 BCE and 1900 BCE after which desiccation gradually affected the region. The IVC as a whole flourished between 3300 BCE and 1300 BCE. However, it’s quite possible that this civilization stretches even farther back than 3300 BCE.”
“That’s not a huge surprise,” Cassie said. “Catal Huyuk in Turkey goes back nine thousand years.”
“As does an IVC town called Mehrgarh which is estimated to be as old as Catal Huyuk ,” Griffin added. “The dwellings follow the same design as the houses we’re looking at here in Mohenjo-Daro. One of the most fascinating finds at Mehrgarh was that its inhabitants practiced proto-dentistry. Several of the skeletons found at the site exhibited drilled molar crowns in their teeth.”
“Get out!” Cassie exclaimed.
The scrive
ner laughed at her reaction. “Prepare to be further amazed. I have a theory that the residents of Mehrgarh received their knowledge from an even older source. A source that lies at the bottom of the Arabian Sea.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve come across sunken buildings,” Erik interjected. “That temple three miles off the coast of Malta. An entire city submerged in the Gulf of Guinea near Nigeria.”
“Precisely,” Griffin affirmed. “A city was recently discovered about twelve miles away from Gujarat in the Gulf of Khambhat. The metropolis is five miles long and two miles wide and now lies beneath one hundred and twenty feet of water. It predates the IVC by several thousand years. Marine surveys show paleo river channels feeding into the area. This would mean that the city was originally situated in close proximity to one or more rivers. Structures thus far identified include uniformly-spaced houses, a bath, granary, citadel, and drainage system.”
“Just like here at Mohenjo-Daro!” Cassie registered astonishment. “How old did you say this underwater city was?”
“Artifacts recovered from the lowest levels of the submerged area show that the region has been continuously inhabited for the past thirty thousand years, but a city was first built in that spot thirteen thousand years ago. Wood taken from the top layer of the site has been carbon-dated at 7500 BCE.”
Arkana Archaeology Mystery Box Set 2 Page 9
