Lothal -Ancient port and the city of Dead - GujaratCityBlog 7/20/17, 8:44 PM

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Lothal -Ancient port and the

city of Dead
Lothal is one of the most famous cities of the ancient Indus Val-

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ley Civilization. It is located in the Bhal region, near Ahmed-

abad in the state of Gujarat. Lothal was originally the site for
the shimmering Red Ware culture, connected with the post-Rig-
Vedic civilization, and celebrated for its mica-related pottery.
The city that matured as the most significant port and a center
of the bead industry, gems and precious ornaments that flour-
ished until 1900 BC. These products reached the far corners of
West Asia and Africa.

Source: Discover India

The people of Lothal worshiped a fire god that could be the

horned deity represented on ancient seals of the civilization.

The dockyard of Lothal

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Source: Harappa.com

The dockyard made Lothal legendary. The dock was probably

the supreme work of maritime architecture before the birth of
Christ. This was the earliest known dock found in the world,
equipped to berth and service ships.

The town was divided into blocks of approx 2 meter-high (ap-

prox 6 !) platforms of oven baked and dried bricks, each con-
sisting of 20–30 houses of thick mud and brick walls. The dock-
yard was located away from the main river to avoid deposition
of silt. It had an area 37 meters from east to west and nearly 22
meters from north to south. It

The engineers built a trapezoidal structure, with north-south

arms of average 21.8 meters
(71.5 !), and east-west arms of 37 meters (121 !). It associated
the city to an ancient course of the Sabarmati River on the
trade route between Harappan cities in Sindh and the peninsu-
la of Saurashtra when the surrounding Kutch desert of today
was a part of the Arabian Sea.

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Source: ancientpages

Lothal was bounded by a massive brick wall, which was proba-

bly used for flood protection. The south-eastern quadrant takes
the form of a great platform of brick with earth filling, rising to
a height of about 13 feet (4 meters). On this were built a series
of further smaller platforms with traversing air channels, remi-
niscent of the granary at Mohenjo-Daro, with overall dimen-
sions of about 159 by 139 feet (48 by 42 meters). A great flood
seemingly resulted in a gradual decline of the city of Lothal.

Why ‘City of the dead’?

Reason behind It Being Called a
Dead City

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Source: ancientpages

Probable reason behind this city’s downfall is still unknown,

but it is said that a great flood which once took place in the city
might have been a reason. Other than this, some other natural
calamities like storms could have also been the reason.

The meaning of Lothal (a combination of Loth and (s) thal) in

Gujarati to be “the mound of the dead” is not unusual, as the
name of the city of Mohenjo-Daro in Sindhi means the same.
People in villages neighboring to Lothal had known of the pres-
ence of an ancient town and human remains.

Present day at lothal

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Source: ancientpages

Discovered in 1954, Lothal was dug up from 13 February 1955

to 19 May 1960 by Prof. S.R. Rao of the Archaeological Survey of
India (ASI), which is the o"icial Indian government agency for
the preservation of ancient monuments. It still attracts visitors,
particularly school and college students. Lothal’s burial ground
is no longer accessible because of untamed growth every-
where. The cemetery houses two skeletons which were found
during excavations at the site, carried out between 1955 and
1962.

According to ASI o"icials, ‘shortage of funds has lead to sta"

inadequacy, which has a"ected even routine maintenance
tasks like a clearing of weeds. As of now, the gateman of the
museum has to run to the historical Lothal dock to caution visi-
tors against moving on the precarious structure.’
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Timings & Entry:

Museum Time 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (Friday Closed)
Entry Fees Rs. 5:00 per Head for Indian Citizen
100/- For Foreign Tourist (Children up to 15 years Free)

Reaching Lothal
Lothal is situated near the village of Saragwala in the Dholka
Taluka of Ahmedabad district. It is six kilometers (southeast) of
the Lothal-Bhurkhi railway station on the Ahmedabad-Bhavna-
gar railway line. It is also connected by all-weather roads to the
cities of Ahmedabad (85 km), Bhavnagar, Rajkot, and Dholka.
The nearest cities are Dholka and Bagodara, Ahmedabad being
the nearest Airpot.

Source: TheBetterIndia

Museum at Lothal
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Source: TripAdvisor

The museum at Lothal was set up in 1976 in order to exhibit the

artifacts discovered from the excavation conducted from 1952
to 1961. The Museum has three galleries. In the front gallery
depicts an artist’s conjectural idea of the Harappan town of
Lothal. There are also early write-ups and maps about the site.
The gallery at le! side has showcases with beads, terracotta or-
naments, imitations of seal and sealing, shell and ivory objects,
copper and bronze objects, tools and potteries yielded from
excavations. The gallery at right has game objects animal and
human figurines, weights, painted potteries, objects recovered
from burials and ritual objects, miniature potteries, bricks be-
side a copy of a joint burial and a scaled model of Lothal site.
Out of the 5089 objects unearthed during the excavation, 800
objects are on display in the museum.

Apart from the exhibited antiqui-

ties, the most fabulous antiquities
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of Lothal are:
Beads,
steatite seals with unicorn motif and inscription,
terracotta sealing with an elephant motif,
Persian Gulf type seal,
gold necklace copper/bronze fish hooks,
bangles,
dish on sand,
perforated jar,
jar painted with the stories of thirsty crow and cunning
fox,
Terracotta bull, horse, model boat, a model of a mummy,
ivory scale and shell compass, chess dice, etc.
The museum has a small reference library and a publica-
tion counter for selling publications of the Archaeological
Monuments.

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