John Marshall

Topic: Harappan (Sindhu-Sarasvati) Civilisation · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Bricks, Beads and Bones"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings"; Class 12, Ch 3 "An Imperial Capital: Vijayanagara"

Meaning

John Marshall was the Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) from 1902 to 1931. In 1924 he announced to the world that a new, very old civilisation had been found in the Indus valley [2].

This announcement pushed the start of Indian civilisation much further back in time. It made India as old as Mesopotamia. His digging method later became a standard example of how archaeology improved over time.

Explanation

Background: the false start before Marshall

• 1875: Alexander Cunningham reported a Harappan seal. He could not place it in time.
• He believed Indian history began with the cities of the Ganga valley.

• He followed the travel records of Chinese Buddhist pilgrims (Xuanzang, Faxian). This plan had no room for a city-based civilisation older than the Vedas.

• Harappa's mound was already damaged by brick robbers. Cunningham noted that a large amount of Harappan brick had been carried off for the Lahore–Multan railway line.

• So the Harappan past stayed unrecognised for almost 50 years.

The 1920s breakthrough under Marshall

• Marshall headed the ASI and directed this phase of large-scale digging [2].
• 1921: Daya Ram Sahni began systematic digging at Harappa (Punjab).
• 1922: Digging began at Mohenjo-daro (Sindh). R.D. Banerji found seals that matched those from Harappa.

• This showed that the two sites belonged to one culture.

• 1924: Marshall announced the discovery of a new civilisation to the world.

• How the age was fixed: Harappan seals had also turned up in the layers of Mesopotamian digs. This proved the two civilisations lived at the same time.
• Marshall's famous remark: the find "left India three thousand years older than he had found her."
• 1931: The first official report on the Mohenjo-daro digs came out. It had a separate section on the Indus script, which still cannot be read [2].

His method and its limits

• Marshall dug in horizontal units. This meant clearing large areas at an even depth across the whole mound.
• The problem: the ground at a site builds up in layers, and each layer belongs to a different period.
• Digging at an even depth mixed objects from different layers together.

• So the order in which things happened (the chronology) became blurred.

• 1946: Mortimer Wheeler dug at Harappa using stratigraphy. This means digging downward layer by layer, where the lowest layer is the oldest. It corrected Marshall's method.

Results

• The Harappan civilisation got its place in world history, alongside Mesopotamia.
• Marshall's work set up Harappa and Mohenjo-daro as the two type-sites (the main sites used to define a culture).
• Both sites went to Pakistan after 1947. Indian archaeologists then searched within India and found Kalibangan, Lothal, Dholavira and Rakhigarhi.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: He was ASI Director-General from 1902 to 1931 [2]. The announcement came in 1924.
• Sites: Harappa (Punjab, now Pakistan) and Mohenjo-daro (Sindh, now Pakistan).
• Key people around him: Cunningham (1875, earlier), Daya Ram Sahni (Harappa, 1921), R.D. Banerji (Mohenjo-daro, 1922), Mortimer Wheeler (Harappa, 1946, later).
• Evidence:
• Harappan seals, matched between Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.
• Harappan seals found in Mesopotamian layers, which were used to date the civilisation.
• The 1931 official excavation report on Mohenjo-daro, with its section on the Indus script [2].

Don't confuse with

• Alexander Cunningham: he reported a Harappan seal in 1875 but failed to date it. Marshall announced the civilisation in 1924.
• R.D. Banerji / Daya Ram Sahni: they were the field excavators at Mohenjo-daro (1922) and Harappa (1921). Marshall was the ASI head who directed the work and announced it.
• Mortimer Wheeler: he introduced stratigraphic (layer-by-layer, vertical) digging at Harappa in 1946. Marshall used horizontal digging.
• John Marshall's term of office: it was 1902–1931 [2]. Don't cut it short to 1928, and don't mix it up with the 1924 announcement year.

Prelims Hooks

• John Marshall, as ASI Director-General, announced the Indus civilisation in 1924.
• Marshall was ASI Director-General from 1902 to 1931. The first official Mohenjo-daro report came out in 1931 [2].
• The age of the Harappan civilisation was fixed by Harappan seals found in Mesopotamian excavation layers.
• Correct order: Cunningham (1875) → Sahni at Harappa (1921) → Banerji at Mohenjo-daro (1922) → Marshall's announcement (1924) → Wheeler's stratigraphy (1946).
• Trap: Marshall dug in horizontal units. Wheeler, not Marshall, brought in stratigraphic digging.
• Marshall's remark: the find left India "three thousand years older".

Mains Points

• How a fixed belief delayed a discovery:
• Cunningham expected history to begin in the Ganga valley, so he could not place the 1875 seal.

• Marshall's 1924 announcement broke that belief. It shows that the assumptions historians start with can shape what they are able to find.

• Change in archaeological method:

• Marshall cleared large areas horizontally, and this mixed up the layers.
• Wheeler (1946) dug layer by layer, which gave a clearer order of events.

• This is a standard GS-I example of archaeology becoming more exact over time.

• Legacy and Partition:

• Marshall's two key sites, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, went to Pakistan in 1947.
• India then searched its own territory and found Kalibangan, Lothal, Dholavira and Rakhigarhi. This links to the wider theme of how Partition affected India's heritage.

Related concepts

• Daya Ram Sahni
• Rakhal Das Banerji
• B.B. Lal
• Archaeogenetics
• Rakhigarhi DNA study
• Vasant Shinde
• Rakhigarhi icon site
• Harappan-Vedic relationship debate

Read more

• Discovery and the archaeogenetic turn