Practicing Success

Target Exam

CUET

Subject

History

Chapter

Ancient India: Bricks, Beads and Bones

Question:

What did George Dales find when re-evaluating the skeletal remains at Mohenjodaro found in 1925 which was thought to be evidence of a massacre at the site?
1) Evidence of extensive burning
2) Signs of war as demonstrated by weapons of war
3) Sloppy and  irreverent burial practice
4) Skeletons of warriors clad in armour

Options:

1

2

3

4

Correct Answer:

3

Explanation:

The correct answer is Option 3 - 3

3 - Sloppy and  irreverent burial practice.

In the 1960s, the evidence of a massacre in Mohenjodaro was questioned by an archaeologist named George Dales. He demonstrated that the skeletons found at the site did not belong to the same period:

Whereas a couple of them definitely seem to indicate a slaughter, … the bulk of the bones were found in contexts suggesting burials of the sloppiest and most irreverent nature. There is no destruction level covering the latest period of the city, no sign of extensive burning, no bodies of warriors clad in armour and surrounded by the weapons of war. The citadel, the only fortified part of the city, yielded no evidence of a final defence.

-FROM G.F. DALES, “The Mythical Massacre at Mohenjodaro”, Expediton, 1964.