BUDDHIST STUPA OR INDUS TEMPLE? Remain Tenuous
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Stupendous? The domed structure at Mohenjo Daro may date to Indus times, mud brick. A 10-symbol signboard was posted on the gate leading into not later. the citadel, an unusual use of a script typically found only on small seals or pots. Grave rites also seem diverse. At Mohenjo Daro, there is no evidence for formal burials at all. At Dholavira, Bisht found a set of tomblike chambers containing an unusual variety of grave goods such as beads and pots but no traces of skeletons; he speculates that the bod- ies may have been cremated. How the Indus people viewed life after death remains elusive. And the lack of temples adds to the difficulties in understanding their over- all religious beliefs. A rare clue to religious practice may have emerged from now-barren Ganweriwala, which once bloomed thanks to the ancient Ghaggar-Hakra River. In his preliminary work there last year, Masih found a seal with the figure of a person or god in a yogalike pose and an apparent devotee below; on the reverse side is Indus script. The seal is similar to others found at Mohenjo Daro and dubbed “proto- Shiva” by some for its similarity to the Hindu deity. The seal has fueled speculation that the religious traditions of the Indus lived on beyond the urban collapse of 1800 B.C.E. and helped lay the basis for Hinduism (see p. 1281). Horned figures on a variety of artifacts may depict gods, as they often do in Mesopotamia. The frustrating lack of evidence has fueled other theories that BUDDHIST STUPA OR INDUS TEMPLE? remain tenuous. Jansen and Possehl suggest that the Indus obsession MOHENJO DARO, PAKISTAN— tures. Based on preliminary exca- with baths, wells, and drains reveals a religious ideology based on the On the highest mound here rises vation of the mound, he even the- use of water, although other scholars are skeptical. a ruined dome—the most dra- orizes that the original structure on March 12, 2012 matic structure in the center of may have been a series of plat- Masters of trade the largest Indus city, set in a forms, perhaps similar to the Ur While evidence accumulates from Indus cities, other insights are com- courtyard once surrounded by ziggurat in Mesopotamia built ing from beyond the region, as artifacts from Central Asia, Iraq, and buildings. But since the 1920s, around 2100 B.C., near the Afghanistan show the long arm of Indus trade networks. Small and archaeologists have considered height of Indus urban life. Such transportable Indus goods such as the dome to be a much later platforms were common from beads and pottery found their way Buddhist stupa ringed by cells of Mesopotamia to Turkmenistan across the Iranian plateau or by monks, built using Indus bricks during that era, but none have sea to Oman and Mesopotamia, www.sciencemag.org 2 millennia after the city’s been clearly identified in the and Indus seals show up in Cen- demise. Now, University of Indus region. tral Asia as well as southern Iraq. Naples archaeologist Giovanni Other scholars are wary of An Indus trading center at Short- Verardi says that this magnificent the ziggurat idea but agree that ugai in northern Afghanistan fun- structure may actually be a mon- the evidence supporting a stupa neled lapis to the homeland. And ument from Indus times. If he’s is slim. “I’m quite sure Verardi there is strong evidence for trade right, it will force Indus scholars is right,” says Michael Jansen of and cultural links between the to rethink the religious and polit- RWTH Aachen University in Ger- Indus and cities in today’s Iran as Downloaded from ical nature of the civilization, many, who has worked here for well as Mesopotamia. Holding a pose? This rare seal may long thought to lack grand tem- years. “We did a very careful Textual analysis of cuneiform hint at the ancient origins of yoga and ples and palaces (see main text). survey of the area around the tablets coupled with recent exca- the Hindu god Shiva. The original excavators citadel and found not a single vations along the Persian Gulf assumed the dome was Buddhist Kushan shard.” Jansen also also show that Indus merchants routinely plied the Arabian Sea and in large part because buried coins notes that Buddhist monks’ cells Persian Gulf, likely in reed boats with cotton sails. “They were major dating to the Kushan Empire of of that period are not usually participants in commercial trade,” says Bisht, who sees Dholavira and the 2nd and 3rd century C.E. were arranged around a stupa. other sites along the coast as trading centers thanks to monsoon winds found at the site. They did note “What’s needed now is careful that allowed sailors to cross 800 kilometers of open waters speedily. OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND MUSEUMS, GOVERNMENT PAKISTAN DEPT. © J. M. KENOYER, COURTESY that the stupa was not aligned in restudy,” says Jansen, who “These people were aggressive traders, there is no doubt about it,” adds typical fashion, that the plinth hopes to excavate at the site. Possehl, who has found Indus-style pottery made from Gujarat clay at SCIENCE; was of unusual height, and that After 2 decades, restoration a dig in Oman. Archaeologist Nilofer Shaikh, vice chancellor of Latif certain pottery shards predated work has at last stabilized the University, takes that assertion a step further, arguing that “the Indus the Kushan. Verardi, who carefully crumbling brick, and officials people were controlling the trade. They controlled the quarries, the examined both the site and the plan to reopen excavations (see trade routes, and they knew where the markets were.” original archaeological reports, p. 1284). “If it is indeed She points out that although Indus artifacts spread far and wide, argues that the coins likely were [Indus], then this will turn our only a small number of Mesopotamian artifacts have been found at buried later and therefore are of interpretations upside down.” Indus sites. Evidence suggests that some Indus merchants and diplo- little value in dating the struc- –A.L mats lived abroad, although the trade was certainly two-way. An inscription from the late 3rd millennium B.C.E. refers to one Shu- CREDITS (TOP TO BOTTOM): A. LAWLER/ 1280 6 JUNE 2008 VOL 320 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org Published by AAAS.