LARKANA: Speakers at a seminar titled ‘Moenjodaro’ underlined various aspects of the ancient archaeological site covering the Indus civilisation, construction work, myth about the mound, museum, excavated artefacts, present day state of the ruins and the causes leading to the destruction of the ‘city of dead’.

The Larkano District Historical Society (LDHS) held the seminar which was presided over by its vice-chairman Dr Bashir Ahmed Shaad.

Researchers drawn from different fields and writers presented their papers at the seminar.

Former Govt Degree College, Larkana, principal Prof Ghulam Hussain Katper said Moenjodaro had been built under a careful planning. Its wide streets and the architectural designs of houses clearly refer to the highly skilled town planners being behind the construction. The city structures are compatible with weather conditions and there are evidence that people were provided with essentials of life.

Jeal Oad, the author of two books on history of Larkana, in his paper on the ‘Causes of destruction of the city of Moenjodaro’, said there were various notions but the strongest of them was that the natural calamities, like bad weathers, storms, floods and the Indus changing its course, were the main cause of the destruction of the great city.

Dr Pirah Sakina Gaad, the vice-chairperson of the Ladies Club, Larkana, and social worker, in her article on the ‘Museum at Moenjodaro’, said that although quite a few things found during excavation of the archaeological site were on display at the museum, it needed an uplift to bring it at a par with the museums of international standards considering the world status of Moenjodaro, she added.

She also called for beefing up security in the area, citing an incident where criminals broke into the museum by smashing a window to steal some artefacts.

Sindhi Adbi Sangat’s Dokri secretary Iqrar Pirzado, in his research paper titled ‘The present state of Moenjodaro’ highlighted the depleting remains of the site.

He noted that except for the place named ‘Great Bath’, all other structures were on the verge of collapse owing to neglect as necessary repair work had never been carried out over the past 10 years. Even the cleaning supposed to be carried out as a daily routine was not being done.

He said that due to the apathy of the authorities, the dried bed of the Indus along the historical ruins was being excavated to take away sand for construction of roads and buildings in other parts of the district. This practice was causing great damage to the site, he said.

He said that local people had grabbed pieces of land and built houses and shops in certain parts of the historical ruins while some cellphone companies had installed their signal-boosting towers within the remit of the site. He called for raising a boundary wall around Moenjodaro to protect it from such encroachments.

Aziz Mangi, Dr Ahsan Danish and Barkat Ali Jeho presented their papers on ‘Myths about Moenjodaro’, ‘Society and culture of Moenjodaro’ and ‘Findings of the excavations’, respectively.

Earlier LDHS secretary Prof Mukhtiar Samo in his welcome address said Larkana, like some other cities of the province had many archaeological sites. He said his organisation was working for the preservation of all historical sites and related material in this district.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2015

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