Finding Forgotten Cities: How the Indus Civilisation Was Discovered

Nayanjot Lahiri

Hachette India-Black Kite, 

456 pages, R350 

In the autumn of 1924, the archaeologist John Marshall made an announcement that dramatically altered existing perceptions of South Asia's antiquity: the discovery of "the civilisation of the Indus valley". But a detailed and accessible narrative of the people, processes, places and puzzles that led up to Marshall’s proclamation on the Indus civilisation has, like the civilisation itself, long remained buried. Now, for the first time, we have the whole story, enchantingly told.