The Port City of LOTHAL

The Hindu published an article on the ancient port city of Lothal.

About Lothal

• Lothal was a port city that belonged to the HarappanCivilisation (Indus Valley) located in present day Saurashtra, Gujarat.
• The word Lothal, like Mohenjo­daro, means the mound of the dead.
• Lothal is located between the Bhogavo and Sabarmatirivers near the Gulf of Khambat.
• Lothal had the world’s earliest known dock, which connected the city to an ancient course of the Sabarmati River on the trade route between Harappan cities in Sindh and the peninsula of Saurashtra.
• However, this interpretation has been challenged by other archaeologists, who argue that the “dock” was actually an irrigation tank.

• The city is 4500years old and was mathematically planned.
• It had a grid patternwith proper streets crossing atrightangles, drainage systems, and a great bath.
• The city was divided into two parts: the upper town (or citadel) and the lower town.
• There was a bead making factory in Lothal and bead­makerswere highly skilled.
• Lothal was in the thick of Harappanmaritime trade, and beads made from semi­precious stones, terracotta, gold, etc. were popular in areas as far as Sumer (modern­day Iraq), Bahrain and Iran.
• The Unicorn seal was also recovered from Lothal.
• A vase discovered at Lothal, has the painting of a crow standing next to a pitcher with a deer looking back at it which reminds one of the tale of the thirsty crow in the Panchatantra.
• The Lothal site has been nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its application is pending on the tentative list of UNESCO.