III.

History of Excavations

The Indus Valley civilization was first defined by the British archaeologist Sir John Marshall's diggings at Mohenjo-Daro and M. S. Vat's excavations at Harappā (both in what is now Pakistan) in the 1920s, and it is sometimes called Harappān civilization after the latter site. In 1946 the British archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler, excavating at Harappā, located stylistically different pottery in the earliest occupied areas. Subsequent discoveries at nearby Kot Diji established that this early pottery at Harappā belonged to the early Bronze Age Kot Diji culture. Since 1960 Indian, Pakistani, and Western scholars have defined several additional early Bronze Age cultures at Goth Āmri, Sothi, Gumla, and other sites in Pakistan, each of which has some traits in common and contributed to the formation of the Indus Valley civilization.