JessicaJ

Escape from Warsaw            4/11/07

Mendoza, Jessica, J Period 6,7 Mrs.Zana

Mohenjadaro Architecture There are a lot of interesting things about Mohenjadaro but I am going to be talking about the architecture. Some of the things that they had were the great bath, the sewer system, the homes, the puramdara’s, and the statuettes. Those are five things of architecture that they had. They had a lot more but I am only naming four. Mohenjadaro was located in the Indus River. The settlements they had became known as the Indus- Saravasti civilization. It was also called the Harappan civilization. It lasted for 800 years. Mohenjadaro was built on the banks of the Indus River. Mohenjadaro means “ place or hill of the dead.” Some archeologists discovered that it had two main parts. The first part was a raised area that was used as a citadel. The second part was below the citadel and it had many houses. Mohenjadaro was a large city. At one time as many as 50,000 people lived there. One mystery still cannot be solved and that is what happened to the civilization? After 1900 B.C.E the great cities of the Indus valley disappeared. They had the great bath witch was used a lot. They had a well that supplied water for the bath. They also used it for religious rituals. It was like a pool built of waterproofed brick. It was 39 feet long and 8 feet deep. There were small dressing rooms that circled the pool. The dirty water was removed through a drain. It is the most dramatic feature of its citadel. That is one of the architecture that they had in Mohenjadaro. They also had the sewer system witch was a great achievement. There complex system of drains, pipes, wells, and bathrooms that set the city apart from other settlements of their time. Two thousand years would pass before the world would see another sewer system like the one they had in Mohenjadaro. A network of clay pipes connected the buildings and homes to the main sewer system. Dirty water and wastes flowed in the streets. To empty the sewage they emptied it in the Indus River. It was able for rich and poor people to have bathrooms in their homes. They were located through out the whole city. That is another piece of architecture that they had. What they also had were their homes. Most of the people lived in the lower city because they were poor; it was three times the size of the citadel. There were rows of houses that filed the whole street. There were two story buildings with flat roofs and were made of mud bricks. The back of the houses opened on to courtyards. That is the last one I am going to be talking about. The last one that I am going to be talking about are the statuettes. I like their statuettes because they made them look like the people they made it for. It is made of steatite limestone. It resembles the hieratic style of sinuous style prototype. The statuettes that they had were very interesting because archeologists sometimes could not figure out what they meant. I wrote about the architecture witch was very interesting. The architecture they had was the great bath, the sewer system, the homes, puramdara, and the statuettes. There are a lot of interesting facts that I did not know and now do know because of learning of it and doing a research report on it witch really helped me a lot. Mohenjadaro is a great topic to do research on. The architecture that they had was very important to them.

Bibliograghy

Frey,Wendy. History Alive. Palo Alto.TCI. 2004\

Chatterjee, Manini. India. United States. Dorlingkin dersley.2002