Harappan Civilisation: Sites and Discovery

A British officer found a strange stone seal in 1853 and could not explain it. It took 70 more years, and two Indian archaeologists, to work out why.

Excavation work under way at Mohenjo-daro, 1924 — the same year John Marshall announced the discovery to the world. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

A 70-Year Mystery

AncHist0004

1853

Cunningham Finds a Seal

Can’t explain what it is

1875

Seal Published, Unexplained

In the ASI’s own report

1921

Sahni Digs at Harappa

The mystery reopens

1922

Banerji Digs at Mohenjo-daro

A second matching site

20 Sep 1924

Marshall Tells the World

“A Forgotten Age Revealed”

Today

Over 1,000 Sites Known

Across India, Pakistan, Afghanistan

Two Indian archaeologists made the discovery: Daya Ram Sahni at Harappa and R.D. Banerji at Mohenjo-daro. Marshall, their British superior, announced their work to the world.

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📑 Contents

1Timeline
2Cunningham’s First Clue
3The 1920s Excavations
4A Civilisation Spread Wide
5The Wider Harappan Story
6Test Yourself

Timeline

1853: Alexander Cunningham finds a seal at Harappa but cannot explain its script or imagery.
1875: Cunningham publishes the seal in an Archaeological Survey of India report, still unexplained.
1921: Daya Ram Sahni begins excavating Harappa.
1922: R.D. Banerji begins excavating Mohenjo-daro, hundreds of kilometres away.
1924: Banerji recognises how old the site really is, and tells John Marshall.
20 September 1924: Marshall announces the discovery to the world in the Illustrated London News.
Today: Over 1,000 Harappan sites are known, across India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

Cunningham’s First Clue Need to Know

Alexander Cunningham, founding head of the Archaeological Survey of India, visited Harappa in 1853, 1856, and 1872.
By the mid-1850s, the site was already being damaged. Engineers John and William Brunton, building the Lahore-Multan Railway, dug up ancient bricks from Harappa and nearby ruins for track ballast.
About 93 miles of line was ballasted this way, at very little cost to the railway. This digging is what first turned up small artefacts, including seals, at the site.
During these visits, he found a small stone seal. It showed a bull without a hump, and six unfamiliar characters above it.
Cunningham did not recognise the script. He guessed, wrongly, that the seal must be foreign to India.
He published the seal in an ASI report in 1875. For nearly 50 more years, nobody connected it to anything.

The 1920s Excavations Need to Know

In 1921, Daya Ram Sahni began proper excavation at Harappa, on the river Ravi.
In 1922, R.D. Banerji began digging at Mohenjo-daro, on the Indus, far to the south.
Both worked under John Marshall, the British Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India.
Banerji was the first to argue, in a 1923 letter to Marshall, that Mohenjo-daro was far older than anyone had assumed.
On 20 September 1924, Marshall announced the discovery to the world in the Illustrated London News, in an article titled “A Forgotten Age Revealed.”
The find pushed the known history of civilisation on the subcontinent back by well over a thousand years, far earlier than most scholars had expected.

A Civilisation Spread Wide Good to Know

A 1996 CIA relief map of Pakistan, overlaid with the major Harappan sites. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Sanghol, Alamgirpur, and Rangpur are marked here too, to cover all 11 sites in this Article’s site list.

Harappa and Mohenjo-daro were only the beginning. Over 1,000 sites are now known, from Afghanistan to Gujarat.
Rakhigarhi, in Haryana, is the largest known Harappan site overall, larger even than Mohenjo-daro.
Sutkagen Dor, near the Iran-Pakistan border, marks the civilisation’s westernmost known point. Alamgirpur, in Uttar Pradesh, marks its easternmost.
Dholavira, in Gujarat, is known for advanced water management. Lothal was a major port on the Gujarat coast.
Shortugai, far away in Afghanistan, shows how far Harappan trade networks reached.
Several individual sites are covered in their own dedicated Articles on this site: Sanghol, Kalibangan, Alamgirpur, Rangpur, and Lothal.

The Wider Harappan Story Great to Know

This Article covers how the Harappan Civilisation was found, and where its major sites lie. Its cities, trade, seals, script, and eventual decline are covered in depth elsewhere on this site.
For city life, trade networks, weights, seals, the undeciphered script, and theories of decline, see AncHist0005 — Harappan Civilisation: Life, Economy and Decline.
Harappan society shows no clear evidence of kings or centralised rule. For how it may have actually been governed, see AncHist0043 — Political Organisation of the Indus Valley Civilization.
For the animals the Harappans kept, hunted, and depicted on their seals, see AncHist0100 — Animals of the Indus Valley Civilization.
For deep dives into individual excavation sites, see the dedicated Articles on Sanghol, Kalibangan, Alamgirpur, Rangpur, and Lothal.