442 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 2 



in the sides of some of the pits. In the sediment pits, on the other 

 hand, the floor was of brick, and the siirphis water ran off through 

 an outflow near the top after depositing its solid contents. It has 

 not been possible to trace the ultimate destination of the larger 

 street drains on the outside of the city, owing to the denudation by 

 time and weather of the outer slopes of the mounds. 



It is probable that it was mostly water from the bathrooms and 

 rainwater from the roof that was carried off by this elaborate system; 

 but there is evidence in certain parts of the city, at all events in the 

 later periods that suggests that sewage also ran down from holes 

 in the walls of upper stories or from the roofs, as in modern Sindhi 

 towns, where it is seen trickling down the walls in the poorer, and 

 even in the not so poor quarters. As each house of any importance 

 had its own well, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that percola- 

 tion from the soak pits and drainage jars of the poorer quarters must 

 have given rise to epidemics of disease from time to time, despite 

 the excellent drainage of the more spacious streets and houses. 



Let us now look into a tj^^pical dwelling house to see how the 

 people lived. To enter it, you must turn into a side lane, for there 

 were practically no doors opening on to the main streets, save those 

 of public buildings. As elsewhere in the modern East, no man made 

 outward display of his wealth, and the ground floor of his house 

 presented a frontage blank of doors and windows to the public gaze. 

 Inside there was usually a courtyard — mostly rather small, and to 

 one side of the building — in which there was a well. It appears 

 that often a householder would give access to his well to his neigh- 

 bors also, in which case it was secluded from the rest of the court- 

 yard by an enclosing wall. And the brick benches beside some of 

 these wells and the deep pot marks in the floors bespeak a hearty 

 interchange of the latest news of the town. 



There was probably at least one upper story, for not only were 

 the outer walls of the dwelling houses extraordinarily thick and, 

 moreover, sloped inward on the outer face to give greater strength, 

 but there are one or two stairways that even now have landings and 

 probably did not lead solely to the roof. Outside stairways, of 

 which there are several examples, may perhaps indicate that more 

 than one family lived in the same building, occupying different floors. 

 This seems all the more probable when you see two drains closely side 

 by side, one from the ground floor and the other running down in 

 the thiclviiess of the wall. 



The houses can scarcely have been well lit, for what few windows 

 there were seem to have been little more than ventilators set high in 

 the wall. But in a land of such blazing sunlight and heat, large 

 windows are rarely made. As said before, nothing was done to 



