478 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1937 



Mohenjo-daro, have left their traces at Chanhu-daro. Living on the 

 banks of a great river running through an alluvial plain must have 

 proved even more disconcerting in ancient times than it does today 

 in many parts of the world. 



The bricks used at Chanhu-daro were veiy much the same size as 

 those of the other Indus cities; they average 11 by 5)2 by 2)^ inches. 

 Made of well-fired clay, they are well-shaped but have no frogging of 

 any kind. The mud mortar used amply served its purpose. They 

 were laid to dry as they were shaped in open molds, and occasionally 

 one is found with the impress of an animal's foot. For special pur- 

 poses, such as lining wells, wedge-shaped bricks were made, and angle- 

 bricks and half-sized bricks have been found. Bricks were also cut 

 into various forms after being laid, as in the recesses of water-chutes; 

 and those forming the corners at the junctions of drainage channels 

 were often carefully rounded off with a chisel so as to impede the 

 flow of water as little as possible (pi. 8). Most of the drains were 

 made of ordinary bricks, and they were laid only a few inches below the 

 surface of the ground so that they might be got at easily for cleaning. 

 Owing to the demolition of many of the houses for the sake of their 

 bricks, whenever the site was deserted, few of the bathrooms were 

 found intact. Those few were simple platforms, of carefully laid bricks 

 edged all round to a height of some 2 inches with bricks laid on edge; 

 the water flowed away through an opening that sometimes communi- 

 cated with a latrine situated between the bath and the street wall, 

 and thence thiough an aperture in which the eflluents passed to the 

 street drain outside (pi. 9). There is no doubt that the sanitary 

 system of the ancient Indus cities surpassed any other of contem- 

 porary date, and it is quite safe to say that it was superior to that in 

 many modern oriental cities, which civilization seems barely to touch. 



After the partial leveling of Mound II, a trial excavation was 

 commenced on the summit of Mound I (pi. 10). Here several build- 

 ings were laid bare, also of the Ilarappa cidture, but shghtly later in 

 date than those in Mound II. It seems that Mound I was occupied 

 by the people of that culture later than was Mound II. Here, too, 

 a few sherds of the Jhukar culture were found in the uppermost part 

 of the mound, but so few that it seems that the Jhukar people only 

 visited and never actually lived on the mound. Mound I offers 

 scope for considerable and profitable investigation, and there is reason 

 to think that it will prove even more productive of museum objects 

 than the fortunate finds in Mound II which have so greatly widened 

 the horizon of our knowledge. The discoveries of a new phase of 

 Indian history with far-flung cultural connections, and metal objects 

 of types never found before, together with fresh insight into the various 

 arts and crafts of a great civilization that 20 years ago was unknown 

 and unsuspected; such are the results of one small season's work of 

 America's first archeological expedition to India. 



