Descrizione

First edition, 3 vols., folio (330 x 255 mm), xxvii, [1], 364; xii, [2], 365-716; xi, [1]pp., 164 plates (including folding plans, illustrations after photographs), 2 folding maps to rear pocket of volume 1 (plus an additional large folding map of the region from unrelated work), further smaller illustrations in-text, original publishers brown buckram, gilt figure to upper cover of all 3 volumes, spines lettered in gilt, a very nice set. An excellent set of this pioneering work on Mohenjo-Daro (meaning ëValley of the Dead Mení), the largest settlement of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Located in Sindh, Pakistan, it is one of the earliest known large cities, founded in the 26th century BCE. Marshall's ìannouncement in 1924 that he had there found a new civilization of the third millennium marked an epoch in modern discovery; the so-called Indus valley civilization is now recognized as the most extensive civilization of the preclassical world. His mass excavation of large areas at Mohenjo-daro, for example, published in 1931, showed a great city, dating from before and after 2000 bc, planned and drained on a vast scale and in a regimented fashion, with wide thoroughfares and closely built houses and workshops. Detail, and often important detail, was lost; but, like Schliemann before him, Marshall got to the heart of the matter and gave what was needed first in the current state of knowledge, namely the general shape, the sketch, of a hitherto unknown civilization. He was a pioneer of a high order.î (ODNB).