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Scientists decide to bury 5,000-year-old lost city in Pakistan

aamirzs

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Mohenjo Daro is threatened by the baking temperatures of the Indus Valley and the threat from tourists and terrorists

Archaeologists are trying to save the remains of a nearly 5,000-year-old city in Pakistan by burying it again.

The buried city, known as Mohenjo Daro or “mound of the dead”, was first discovered in the 1920s by an officer at the Archaeological Survey of India in what is now Sindh, Pakistan.

Over the next 50 years, excavations revealed a Bronze Age city complete with a street grid and a sophisticated drainage system which included flushing toilets.

The city was part of the Harappan civilisation which reached its heyday at around 2500BCE and ended in apparent destruction in around 1900BCE.

No one exactly knows why the Harappan civilisation the disappeared, although theories for their extinction have included an Aryan invasion and catastrophic weather conditions such as drought.

Scientists now fear the effects on the site of the intense heat of the Indus Valley.

Dr Michael Jansen, a German researcher working at the site, told Agence France Presse the region was facing “enormous thermo-stress” from temperatures which can reach 46C in the summer.

The site is also threatened by salt from the underground water table.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...ct-people-weather-archaelogists-a7742451.html
 
Love that masala they needed to add about terrorists, when has any terrorist ever attacked or even threatened Mohenjo Daro? Even in the article they say the Taliban in Afghanistan is the same group as the TTP in Pakistan, what?!?

Sindh definitely needs to invest money and talent to preserve the site, but it wont ever happen as long as PPP is in power.
 
Sindh definitely needs to invest money and talent to preserve the site, but it wont ever happen as long as PPP is in power.

The Archaeologists should be requested to bury Qaim Ali Shah with it.

If this city had proper drainage system and flushing toilets then they definitely would know how to protect themselves from rising temperature in that region (if the conditions were similar in 2500 BC).
 
http://nation.com.pk/national/26-Ma...r-damage-to-mohenjodaro-due-to-sindh-festival

Petition filed in SC over damage to Mohenjodaro due to Sindh festival
March 26, 2014, 2:41 pm/ 2 Comments
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Online




ISLAMABAD- A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court for the protection of historical sites and against the damages incurred to Mohenjodaro ruins due to Sindh festival. A petitioner Saim Satti today filed a petition in Supreme Court, in which he has requested the Supreme Court of Pakistan to seek reply from Sindh Government over the damages to historical site of Mohenjodaro, during the Sindh festival. The petitioner has made DG environments and Secretary Cultural Heritage as plaintiff. The petitioner has also asked the court to issue directives for the protection of historical and cultural sites in the country.


http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/2...t-after-the-sindh-festival-gets-done-with-it/
MohenjoDaro may not be the same after the Sindh Festival gets done with it!
By Imran Khalid Published: January 31, 2014

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While the sentiments of the Sindh Festival’s organisers are applauded for trying to bring the world’s attention to our history, it reflects poorly on their judgment and that of the authorities to allow such an event to proceed at this fragile heritage site. PHOTO: FILE

They say a picture speaks a thousand words. Sometimes, those words carry a sense of agony and irony. Such was the case when I came across a picture depicting the historic mound of MohenjoDaro, surrounded by wooden scaffolding and construction crews.

My first reaction was to do a double take.

I thought I surely had been mistaken for why would anyone allow such an archaeological wonder to go under the proverbial knife and in such a daring fashion?


Upon reading the associated article, I was informed that preparations were afoot to hold the opening ceremony of the Sindh Festival at this heritage site. The festival is a Bilawal Bhutto led initiative which seeks to highlight the social and cultural heritage of the province. In this case, however, the event directly poses a serious threat to the stability of one of the world’s most valuable archaeological treasures.

MohenjoDaro, or Mound of the Dead, is considered ground zero when it comes to the study of Indus Valley Civilisation. Situated approximately 400km north of Karachi, the site was discovered by accident when archaeologist R D Banerji initiated a dig in 1922 to explore the visible Buddhist stupa and monastery in the area. What happened next stunned the world as the expedition revealed one of the world’s first modern cities. It contained dug wells for accessing clean drinking water, unheard of in civilisations dating back over 4000 years.

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MohenjoDaro before and after the preparations. Photo: AFP

The wastewater systems, that a significant portion of South Asia lacks today, comprised effluent drains built with brick masonry that ran along unpaved streets. Sir John Marshall, the then Director General of the Archaeological Department of India, remarked in a book that,

“Never for a moment was it imagined that five thousand years ago, even before the Aryans were heard of, the Panjab (sic) and Sind, if not other parts of India, were enjoying an advanced and singularly uniform civilisation of their own, closely akin but in some respects even superior to that of contemporary Mesopotamia and Egypt.”

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MohenjoDaro before and after the preparations. Photo: AFP

Nearly a century later, we are still not even half way through exploring the wonders of MohenjoDaro. The archaeologists have taken care not to rush into further exploration since the structures are vulnerable to even the changes in moisture present in the air, among other factors.

Efforts to stabilise the brick structures have run into problems.

Dr Asma Ibrahim, a leading Pakistani archaeologist, ensures that the way things are going, this heritage site will completely disappear in 20 years due to decay.

It is in this context that I find hosting the event on the grounds of MohenjoDaro baffling. Any changes, however minor, to the façade of the site are magnified many times over in the context of its archaeological importance. There is no doubt that installation of light fixtures, scaffolding for a staging area and influx of large number of people will do irreparable damage to the site.

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Pakistan has passed a number of legislations protecting such archaeological treasures, not the least of which is the Antiquities Act of 1975. The environmental legislation also calls for a detailed impact assessment whenever such activities are undertaken at protected heritage sites. There is no reason to believe that any such assessment was undertaken by the organisers. Indeed, the authorities, themselves, seem to be the enablers in this instance.

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Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, MohenjoDaro is one of the six sites in Pakistan that fall under UNESCO’s World Heritage List and are considered to be of ‘outstanding universal value’.

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While the sentiments of the Sindh Festival’s organisers are applauded for trying to bring the world’s attention to our history, it reflects poorly on their judgment and that of the authorities to allow such an event to proceed at this fragile heritage site.

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There are a number of other ways that can be used to celebrate the value of our heritage.

Mr Bhutto could have initiated a plan to highlight such heritage through changes in the curriculum. He could have used some of the funds received for this event to develop a television documentary on our collective heritage.

In holding this event at MohenjoDaro, in disregard of relevant laws, Mr Bhutto would find that it would cease to be a cultural event and would be seen as a political stunt.

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Pakistan is home to many historic and environmental treasures. We just choose to ignore them at our own peril.
 
Offtopic but is that superman Logo:woot:.

Anyway, burying this will only make things worse. Since the natural disappearance of the city was gradual without huge damage. But artificial burying will obliterate the sites.

Global warming man, everything we have known and loved is slowly going to fade away starting with the polar ice caps, followed by most animal species and then eventually humans. It is merely an ominous sign of times to come.
 
sadly these remains are in pakistan and even worse is that they are in sindh. the zardari and co will even sell the remaining bricks of the site and illegally take over the land.
 
Archeologists in Pakistan are not given proper financial fodder and are very quickly dismissed by the 'accepted' mainstream quarters.

Archeology seems to be not a hot topic among the young generation as well since it is considered a 'low paying hard work'.

This has very little to do with global warming to begin with and we risk losing potential cut on the tourism market. Sindh government has a knack of shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to practicality and worse still that the local population are uneducated about the gold mine of an opportunity they are sitting on.

And Mohen jo Daro is not 5000 year old as proclaimed by evangelical archeology.
 
Tourists and terrorists? What have tourists done? And when have terrorists attacked it? This is stupid.

I have been there and seen people climbing over delicate walls, walking down restricted areas etc. Tourists are bigger threats than the terrorists to the city and more should be done to protect and promote this amazing ancient city.
 
Sorry to say, but burying again is the riggt move. When you are having concerts on the premises and people scratch theor names into 5000 year old stone, you can be trusted to preserve this treasure. Let fiture generations enjoy it when they develop more sense of what it could meam to Pakistan.
 
Sorry to say, but burying again is the riggt move. When you are having concerts on the premises and people scratch theor names into 5000 year old stone, you can be trusted to preserve this treasure. Let fiture generations enjoy it when they develop more sense of what it could meam to Pakistan.


What kind of logic is this? Should I cut off my hands and feet just because nails grow again?

These are heritage sites which should be promoted and further researched.

There are laws to stop the vandalism and if these are not being implemented then their is your problem.

The future generations will work on where we left off and that might be too late if we keep burying ourselves.
 
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