Mohenjo-daro's conservation crisis and the 'decline' debate

Record summary

After 1947, Mohenjo-daro became the focus of major Pakistani conservation efforts as rising groundwater, salt crystallization, erosion and seasonal flooding threatened exposed mud-brick architecture. The preservation problem is an archaeological lead in its own right because interventions altered what could be excavated, displayed and interpreted. At the same time, the site's abandonment and the wider decline of Indus urbanism remained contested, with environmental, economic, political and social explanations competing. Research should connect conservation reports with excavation histories rather than treating the visible ruins as an untouched record of ancient events.