Finding Forgotten Cities: How the Indus Civilization was Discovered,Used

ReviewI could hardly put Finding Forgotten Cities down. It is an enticingly wellwritten history of the beginnings of Indian archaeology and the first biography of its kind of the leading figure Sir John Marshall. Asko Parpola Times Higher EducationProduct DescriptionIn the autumn of 1924 the scholararchaeologist John Marshall made an announcement that rewrote the history books: he proclaimed the discovery of the civilization of the Indus valley. Within weeks, Marshalls discovery was recognized as on the same scale as the unearthing of Troy and of Crete. Spanning nearly a century, Finding Forgotten Cities tells the full story of Marshalls discovery for the first time.The Indus discovery was the work of many individuals: the collectortraveller Charles Masson, who first described Harappa; Alexander Cunningham, the archaeological pioneer and Harappas first excavator; Daya Ram Sahni, Rakhaldas Banerji, and Madho Sarup Vats, the discerning diggers who uncovered Harappa and Mohenjodaro; Luigi Pio Tessitori, the Italian linguistturnedexplorer who unearthed Kalibangan but never lived to tell the tale of his exploits; government officials of all kinds who, as selftaught archaeologists, stumbled upon significant clues; and, presiding over the whole process, John Marshall, a Cambridge classicist brought by Lord Curzon to India as Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India, the man who finally pieced into place the tantalising jigsaw of data on the longforgotten Indus civilization.Based on previously unknown archival materials, Finding Forgotten Cities presents a powerful narrative history of how one of the key sites of ancient civilisation was unexpectedly unearthed.Book DescriptionIn the autumn of 1924 the ancient civilization of the Indus valley was discovered, an archeological find as historically significant as the unearthing of Troy or Crete. Its discovery caused the rewriting of history books and forever changed the timeline of ancient history. This book tells the intriguing story of this discovery. It is filled with interesting and quirky characters, such as Luigi Pio Tessitori, the Italian linguistturnedexplorer who unearthed Kalibangan but never lived to tell the tale; Alexander Cunningham, the archaeological pioneer and Harappa's first excavator; and John Marshall, a Cambridge classicist who finally solved the tantalizing puzzle of data on the longforgotten Indus civilization. In the end, this story spans nearly a century, combining history and archeology to tell the fascinating story of this worldchanging discovery for the first time.About the AuthorNayanjot Lahiri is Professor, History Department, Delhi University. She is the author of PreAhom Assam (1991) and The Archaeology of Indian Trade Routes (1992); coauthor of Copper and Its Alloys in Ancient India (1996); and editor of The Decline and Fall of the Indus Civilization (2000) as well as an issue of World Archaeology entitled The Archaeology of Hinduism (2004).