On September 20, 1924, The Illustrated London News published the first images announcing the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization. In the accompanying article Sir John Marshall, Director General of Archaeology of India, wrote a little breathlessly: "The two sites where these somewhat startling remains have been discovered are some 400 miles apart – the one being at Harappa, and the other at Mohenjo-daro. 

At both these places there is a vast expanse of artificial mounds evidently covering the remains of once flourishing cities, which must have been in existence for many hundreds of years.  A week later, in his Letter to the Editor of the same publication, Professor A.H. Sayce, a famous Assyriologist, wrote that “the remarkable discoveries of which Sir John Marshall has given an account are even more remarkable and startling than he supposes.  He explained that the seals in the pictures of the newly discovered cities were identical to those found in Sumer at layers from around 2600-2300 BCE.  “The discovery opens up a new historical vista and is likely to revolutionise our ideas of the age and origin of Indian civilization”,  he prophesied.  And so indeed it has turned out. Today, over 1400 sites of this ancient yet sophisticated urban civilization have been discovered, spread over a vast geographical region including Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Over the last century, archaeologists and scholars from across the world have contributed richly to the understanding of this great civilization that existed in various phases of maturity between 3300
BCE and 1300 BCE.

Tamil Heritage Trust Indology Festival 2024, "Harappan Civilization: A Century of Discovery celebrates the Centenary of the discovery – more accurately, of the announcement of the discovery – of the Harappan Civilization.

From June 10th to 15th, 2024, we bring you a series of Talks by archaeologists and other
experts on various fascinating aspects that have been uncovered so far as well the mysteries
that remain buried in the sands of time.
In #THTIndoFest2024, we will learn:
 What the Harappans ate and how they grew their food
 Who they traded with and what was their marketing strategy 
 How they viewed family and kinship 
 Their advanced technology and  skills in crafts and metallurgy
 How Gujarat was a hub of the Harappan Civilization
 Their script and what the experts have been able to understand so far seals and more..
  
#THTIndoFest2024 offers two Online Talks every day starting at 5.30 pm. And they are free
to watch.  To receive your link for ALL the Talks, please register at: bit.ly/THT-Register
 
See you at #THTIndoFest2024!

SPIC MACAY and THT -- STUDENT HERITAGE VISIT

SPIC MACAY's 9th International Convention 2024 hosted by IIT Madras. Tamil Heritage Trust organised a heritage tour for a few thousand children who have come from various parts of India. They visited Maamallapuram and Madras Museum - sculpture and bronze galleries as part of the event on the final day of the convention -26th May 2024. Here are the pictures of the students with the volunteers.