GROUND ZERO IN 2000 BCE

In 1924, the then Director-General of the Archeological Survey of India, John Marshall,
announced the discovery of a civilization contemporaneous with the great ancient
civilization of Mesopotamia (modern Iran and Iraq)-the Harappan Civilization, in present-day
Sindh, Pakistan. This ancient Indian civilization rivalled its Mesopotamian and Egyptian
counterparts in all spheres. Farming settlements began around 4000 BCE and around 3000
BCE there appeared the first signs of urbanization. By 2600 BCE, dozens of towns and cities
had been established, and between 2500 and 2000 BCE the Indus Valley Civilization was at
its peak. But around 1800 BCE, the civilization came to an end. We do not see any urban
centers after this. Big cities of Kalibangan and Mohenjodaro were abandoned as early as
2100 BCE-still the Mature Harappan Phase! However, all Harappan cities did not decline
altogether at once. In the few Harappan sites that continued to be occupied after 1800 BCE
there appears to have been a transformation of material culture, marked by the
disappearance of the distinctive artefacts of the civilization – weights, seals, special beads.
Writing, long-distance trade, and craft specialization also disappeared. House construction
techniques deteriorated and large public structures were no longer produced.

An advanced civilization, with a huge population (it is estimated that Mohenjodaro had a
population of more than 40,000 at its peak) and well-established trade, state and society,
existing throughout for more than two thousand years, suddenly came to an end. What
brought about this drastic change? Several explanations have been put forward. These
range from climatic change, deforestation, excessive floods, the shifting and/or drying up of
rivers, to overuse of the landscape. Some of these “causes” may hold for certain
settlements, but they do not explain the collapse of the entire civilization. One of the most
accepted theories for decades had been the Aryan invasion theory propounded by Mortimer
Wheeler. It maintained that a race of European or Central Asian “Aryans” swept into the
subcontinent displacing the indigenous Harappan Civilization. But this theory has now been
countered. Another of the most accepted theories is that of a massive flood that submerged
large portions of the civilization, but is still under debate.

However, there is one supremely interesting theory regarding the abandonment of

Mohenjodaro, which has been out of popular talks till date. In 1979, British archaeologist
David Davenport revealed some startling findings in his book Atomic Destruction in 2000 BC -
the objects found at the site appeared to be fused, glassified by a heat as high as 1500°C,
followed by a sudden cooling. Within the city itself there appeared to be an ‘epicentre’
about 50 yards wide within which everything was crystallized, fused or melted, and sixty
yards from the center the bricks are melted on one side indicating a blast. Davenport
claimed that what was found at Mohenjodaro corresponded exactly to what was seen at
Nagasaki and Hiroshima. A. Gorbovsky in his book Riddles of Ancient History, reported the
discovery of at least one human skeleton in the area with a level of radioactivity
approximately 50 times greater than it should have been due to natural radiation.

The thesis here is that it is possible that Mohenjodaro suffered some kind of nuclear
explosion, and as the possible capital of the city declined, the rest of the civilization started
declining gradually, combined with some other environmental factors.

The first main point here is the archeological

evidence. At Mohenjodaro, an ’epicenter’ that
is 150 feet wide has been identified, and
within that area, everything was crystallized,
fused or melted. Lumps of glass and vitrified
pieces of pottery have been discovered. Sixty
yards from the center the bricks are melted
on one side. Restricted access to the site has
prevented scientists from analyzing the
vitrified ruins, but in 2014, mineralogist Dr.
Sam Iyengar was able to conduct an analysis on a vitrified pottery sample from the site.
When he put that sample through X-ray diffraction, he found the pattern of that sample
similar to that of a volcanic rock. Certainly, there are no volcanoes in the Indus Valley
regions. He reported that clay can be converted to rock only when the clay is subjected to
massive, massive heat i.e. 4000 to 5000 degrees Fahrenheit, and that it is not something
that an early civilization could achieve intentionally.

Secondly, forty-four skeletons have

been found in Mohenjodaro at the
street level. The skeletons were
scattered about the cities, many
holding hands and sprawling in the
streets as if some instant, horrible
doom had taken place. People were
just lying, unburied, in the streets of
what once happened to be a sprawling
metropolis. What could cause such a
thing? Why did the bodies not decay or get eaten by wild animals? Furthermore, there is no
apparent cause of a physically violent death. As further researches were conducted, these
skeletons were found to be very radioactive and “on par with those at Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.” It has been proven that these skeletons are at least 4000 years old, and given

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that fact that radioactive materials render the carbon-dating results younger, it can be
inferred that the Harappan Civilization is much older than we think it is (this can question the
entire timeline of pre-history and proto-history that we follow, and on this basis, it can be
argued further that the Mahabharata happened in 3102 BCE).

Interestingly, evidence of a similar kind of explosion around the same time period has been
found in the southwestern corner of Egypt, along the border of Libya. That area is a sandy
area, but it is covered with evidence of vitrification all over. Could it be an indication towards
some kind of nuclear warfare between Mohenjodaro, the possible capital of Meluhha and
the mysterious, ‘mythical’ Atlantis, the possible capital of Misr? In fact, this nuclear explosion
has been associated with the Brahmastra mentioned in Indian epics. On the internet, a
theory about war-like interaction between the Egyptian falcon-headed god Horus and the
seventh incarnation of the the Hindu god Vishnu, Rama, has also been put forward.

Thus, could it be possible that a nuclear attack destroyed Mohenjodaro? Well, given the
archaeological evidence, certainly this aspect of speculation cannot be ignored.
Mohenjodaro was abandoned in 2100 BCE i.e. in the Mature Harappan Phase, when the
civilization was at its peak. It is possible that war led to destruction of people’s lives. But
again, this nuclear explosion theory has as many problems as other theories regarding the
decline of Harappan Civilization. For instance, if Mohenjodaro had a population of more than
40,00, then howcome only 44 skeletons have been found (The counter to this is very, very
speculative- the citizens had been informed beforehand, and they fled the city, except for
some unfortunate ones who could not or who chose to embrace death in the arms of their
motherland)? Another thing that has been pointed out is that the pieces of vitrified pottery
were found at and near pottery kilns (the counter given to this is that kiln heat cannot
convert clay into rock, and the many vitrified pieces of pottery found in the area of the
‘epicenter’ is because it was a pottery production site). Furthermore, could the explanation
be that of an experiment gone haywire? But that is as absurd as the idea of possession of
nuclear warhead. If at all, these people were able to build a nuclear warhead, where are the
archeological remains of the reactors, or the labs, or the nuclear waste? Moreover, to what
extent does the destruction of Mohenjodaro due a nuclear explosion explains the
abandonment of other Harappan cities?

But think about this- isn’t it true, that we what remember, the remains of what the naked
eye can see, becomes our ‘past’ for us, and what we forget, the indicators of which we can’t
see through the naked eye, becomes improbable, absurd, ‘mythical’? Maybe something of
this sort has happened with our ancient ancestors.

[Written by Divya Chowdhary, BA(H) History Sem-1]

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