July 2, 2001

9:50 PM

Ho Hum, just the remains of another four thousand year old city discovered on the ocean floor. This one is Harrapan of the Indus Valley which was home to the largest of the four ancient urban civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China. The ruins extend for 9 kilometers and located around 40 metres below the water surface. "Due to geological processes and tectonic events, the entire [Gulf of] Cambay was faulted — taking down with it the then existing part of the river sections and the metropolis"
posted by lagado (3 comments total)

this is awesome. i took an anthropology class last semester, and we were talking about harrapas at the end of the semester.
posted by moz at 10:38 PM on July 2, 2001

Now this is cool! They found Cleopatra's Alexandria a few years ago, but there was never really any mystery as to where it had gone- finding Harrapas is quite a coup. I know they're going back after monsoon season- I wonder if they'll be able to carry out an in-depth excavation. Crossroads of the ancient world, I wonder what they'll find?? I'm so thrilled, this has been a banner season for archaeology!
posted by headspace at 6:08 AM on July 3, 2001

Oooh oooh, and it occurs to me, maybe they'll find a "rosetta" stone, and send archaeologists and linguists into an ecstatic orgy of research! (It is too early in the morning for me to be posting to MeFi.)
posted by headspace at 6:11 AM on July 3, 2001