Rescue squad. A Latif University team digs at Lakhanjo Daro, a site now largely destroyed.

mal figurines, and a rare copper spearhead along with the rectilinear architecture and pot- tery typical of an Indus site. Now construction is encroaching on even those remaining lots. The researchers have only hints of what is being lost to development. Climbing through thorny brush in a nearby ravine, Mallah points his flashlight at a dressed limestone block—an unusual feature for an Indus site—alongside Indus-style bricks. “This city could have been 1 square kilometer in size, or even larger,” he says. “But it is going fast.” He says further excavation is unlikely, given how disturbed the area is now. Trying to Make Way for the Old Fifty kilometers to the southwest, the largest of Indus cities, Mohenjo Daro, con- Archaeologists battle looters and sometimes locals in both and India as fronts a different set of problems. In 1980, the they seek to excavate before modern development swallows Indus cities year it was named a World Heritage Site, a United Nations report warned that the city was , PAKISTAN—It’s dusk in a grim industrial area on the out- “in danger of total destruction” due to rising water levels. UNESCO skirts of this southern Pakistani city, and archaeologist Qasid Mallah of began a massive project to divert the Indus River and drain water from Shah Abdul Latif University in Khairpur stands in a vacant lot, full of the site, involving more than 50 costly water pumps and later a series of anger and dismay. “This is the murder of heritage,” he says bitterly, ges- canals. But high soil moisture continued to draw out salts that ate away on March 12, 2012 turing at the metal rebar sprouting from recently dug trenches. “In spite at the brick foundations. Officials spent years arguing over what to do. of all our efforts, this will be gone.” Just a few months ago, the con- In the meantime, new digs at the site—less than 10% of which has been struction site was a barren field containing some of the last remains of excavated—were banned. a 5000-year-old city known as Lakhanjo Daro. Now, even this last Researchers eventually discovered that the soil moisture was due pri- patch is threatened by development; the work is a harbinger of yet marily to cold, humid air during the winter. The pumps were turned off in another factory. 2003, and workers put a thin layer of clay over the original bricks. Now Destroying ancient sites to make way for the new is old business when salt crystallizes in the heavy dews of winter, it eats away this layer here. In the 1860s, before the Indus city of Harappa was even exca- instead. “I’m extremely happy; the site is very stable,” says Michael www.sciencemag.org vated, British engineers seized thousands of baked bricks to build a rail- Jansen, a member of the UNESCO team and an archaeologist at RWTH way bed and passenger stations. Only later did archaeologists recog- Aachen University in Germany, who visited the site in March. “It is the nize the site as one of the premier metropolises of an ancient civiliza- first time in 20 years that there’s not a newly endangered wall.” Pakistan’s tion. But the threat to what remains of the Indus comes not just from director general for archaeology, Fazal Dad Kakar, says he intends to lift development. Rakhigarhi, a recently excavated site in western India, the ban on excavations now that the crisis is over. supports a lively trade in looted antiquities. And at Mohenjo Daro in But expanding villages pose a new threat. While diverting water Pakistan, where scientists have recently managed to stop water-related from the site in the late 1980s, workers uncovered evidence of Indus- destruction, thieves brazenly raided the site museum in 2002. Such var- era buildings 1.5 kilometers from the city center. And throughout the Downloaded from ied dangers threaten the heritage of both countries and pose area, workers digging wells have found Indus- yet another challenge for Pakistan’s struggling archaeolog- era bricks, suggesting a city potentially twice ical community (see sidebar, p. 1285). as large as the 150 hectares long estimated. Despite its large size, Lakhanjo Daro wasn’t even rec- “Mohenjo Daro is far larger than we antici- ognized as an Indus site until the 1980s, when local stu- pated,” says Jansen. “If the city is 300 hectares dents brought material to Latif in nearby Khairpur. The in size, it is enormous, comparable to Ur” at Indus River squeezes through the stony Hills here, the same period in Mesopotamia. Archaeolo- SCIENCE making the location a strategic center. The area around gists from UNESCO, Pakistan, and other Lakhanjo Daro was set aside for industrial development countries hope to begin a series of test drills to in the 1980s, when the population surged above 500,000; determine the city’s extent, but the project has it is now at 1.8 million. been hampered by lack of funding and When government officials moved to protect the area, repeated bureaucratic delays. local developers used political connections and lawsuits to The site faces an even more complex chal- oppose the move. So Latif archaeologist and current Vice lenge from lawlessness. In 2002, thieves were Chancellor Nilofer Shaikh compromised by setting aside bold enough to steal 40 seals and copper specific vacant lots. “I had to demark some limits, or we tablets from the Mohenjo Daro museum, would not have gotten anything,” Shaikh says. A Latif where a sign now warns that “Weapons are not team, including Shaikh and Mallah, spent four seasons Hidden treasure. Wazir Chand Saroae, allowed in the museum.” A curator says the site from 1994 to 2006 probing five mounds as factories sprang with Indus figurine, says looting contin- is not fenced and admits that there is “some

up around them, uncovering shell bangles, terra cotta ani- ues at Rakhigarhi. looting.” Although a relatively peaceful area, A. LAWLER/ UNIVERSITY; CREDITS (TOP TO BOTTOM): LATIF

1284 6 JUNE 2008 VOL 320 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org Published by AAAS UNMASKING THE INDUS | NEWSFOCUS

new problems. “We get peanuts for PAKISTANI ARCHAEOLOGY FACES ISSUES OLD AND NEW excavations, we’re losing all our KHAIRPUR, PAKISTAN—Ghulam opportunity to understand the that is 2 decades old, is one of a experienced archaeologists, and the Mohiuddin Veesar doesn’t have to Indus hinterland. What’s needed, few bright spots for archaeology new generation is not getting commute to find remains of the Mallah says, are massive surveys in Pakistan. The University of the trained,” frets Javaid. Most recently, past. Just a short walk beyond his and pinpointed excavations, as well Punjab in Lahore, the country’s Pakistan’s provinces have been mud-brick village in southeastern as a way to protect sites from largest, recently organized its first pressuring the federal government Pakistan rises a small mound cov- development and looting (see main archaeology department, and a in Islamabad to abolish national ered with stone tools, pottery text). Given the size of the area and scattering of other universities control over archaeological sites. shards, and the occasional shell its harsh terrain, “it’s really a huge conduct excavations, mostly work- Javaid fears this could lead to aboli- bead fashionable during the glory task,” Mallah says. With support ing with foreign teams. But Pak- tion of the central archaeology days of the Indus civilization. A 47- from their vice chancellor Nilofer istan has long been hampered by department, which would likely year-old archaeologist at nearby Shaikh, herself an Indus archaeolo- loss of expertise when the country diminish the budget and authority Shah Abdul Latif University, the gist, they have begun the job and was created in 1947 and severed of archaeologists and make it more quiet and wiry Veesar has led Pak- hope to lure foreign archaeologists ties with the Archaeological Sur- difficult to protect sites, he says. istani and Italian colleagues to to assist. “Tell people to come and vey of India. “We had to start from Already, there are tight con- hundreds of ancient sites here on research,” Mallah says. “Everyone scratch,” says Anjum Javaid, assis- straints on where archaeologists the edge of the rugged Thar is welcome.” tant curator at the Lahore Fort in can operate. Most foreign Desert, without needing global The optimism and enthusiasm the northern city of Lahore. researchers steer clear of the coun- positioning systems, survey maps, at Latif, a growing rural university Now Pakistani researchers face try at the moment. And some areas or other tools. This is home turf. As rich in sites—such as Baluchistan a teenager, he rode his motorcycle to the west and the North-West up and down these sand dunes. Frontier Province—are off-limits to The finds are opening a new both Pakistani and foreign excava- on March 12, 2012 window on the Indus civilization, tors. But here in province and showing that this remote region in other areas in the east, the coun- was settled for thousands of years. tryside remains relatively peaceful. Veesar’s Latif colleague and friend Whether or not foreigners come, Qasid Mallah argues that the enor- Veesar says he will continue to seek mous variety of sites offers a rich new sites to catalog and dig in the Thar Desert, rattling over high sand dunes in an old jeep with Mallah.

Nomad’s land. Ghulam Veesar www.sciencemag.org (right) consults with a local shepherd “This is not only our heritage, it’s in the Thar Desert. the world’s,” he says. –A.L.

local officials say bandits and the occasional terrorist make roads are going up around unoccupied mounds, and one senior ASI official unsafe after nightfall. says the goal is to buy out the locals and remove the village. “Only then At Harappa, nearly 600 kilometers to the north, the problems are can you dig,” he says, adding that the bureaucratic and financial obsta- more prosaic but just as challenging. Local villagers own half the cles to doing so are huge. Downloaded from land area of the sprawling ancient city and are loath to be bought out Meanwhile, archaeologists say there has been extensive looting by the government. They have begun to turn part of the land into a here over the years; according to one recent rumor, a villager found and cemetery, and a mosque built 5 centuries ago with Indus brick sits sold 30 Indus seals. That traffic has almost stopped, insists the site’s on a prominent spur of the ancient city. Those areas will remain off- lone guard. But local schoolteacher Wazir Chand Saroae disagrees. In limits to archaeologists. “When it comes to religion, people get emo- his modest home nearby, he shows off an impressive array of pots, ban- tional,” says Aasim Dogar, who directs the site. Passing by the gles, ivory and lapis lazuli beads, and animal figurines carefully mosque, an old man shouts an epithet at Dogar, who grumbles in wrapped in newspaper and numbered according to his own archival reply—a sign of the contentious relationship between officials and system. Saroae is an outspoken advocate for site protection and says he locals. But Dogar is optimistic the deal will be closed soon, allowing does not sell his finds. “The situation has not improved much,” he says a fence to be put in place to protect the mounds. ruefully. “Villagers are still digging, and the single watchman is not Across the border in India, villagers are similarly resentful of effective over such a large area.” archaeologists. Half of the large Indus city of Rakhigarhi is in the hands Some archaeologists call for tougher penalties for looting, but oth- of private owners, and the town covers several of the largest mounds. ers say the key is to educate the population. “At least one man in the vil- Excavations by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) began in lage has developed a passion for this,” Garge says optimistically as he 1997 but ground to a halt in 2000, partly because of disputes with leaves Saroae’s home. Just a few meters away, he points out a 17-meter-

SCIENCE inhabitants. “The villagers are afraid that the government will grab high cliff studded with 5000-year-old potsherds and bricks; an ancient their land,” says Tejas Garge, who worked as a graduate student for ASI mound has been sliced away for a village road. Pigeons are busy roost- excavating at the site. He recalls village women throwing stones at him: ing, digging holes into the layers. But the site is owned by villagers and “It was horrible. At one point, a dozen villagers came with sticks and so strictly off-limits to the spades of archaeologists.

CREDIT: A. LAWLER/ ordered us to stop.” The team eventually abandoned their effort. Fences –ANDREW LAWLER

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