Archaeologists recently discovered a pot of copper coins at Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan. This is the first major discovery at this particular archaeological site in Larkana District of Pakistan's Sindh Province in 93 years! Built in 2500 BCE, Mohenjo-daro was the largest settlement of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation, and one of the world's earliest major cities.
Archaeologists found the pot full of copper coins during conservation works near a stupa (a dome-shaped building built as a Buddhist shrine) situated at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Mohenjo-daro (or Mount of the Dead). It may be noted that this Indus Valley Civilisation city flourished between BCE 2600 and BCE 1900. The city was entirely built of unbaked brick lie in the Indus Valley, and researchers discovered it in the 1920s.
Archaeologists have claimed that the discovery of the pot is a significant one as those copper coins are nearly 5,000-year-old. Dr Syed Shakir Shah, the Director of Archaeology Mohenjo-daro who led the team of archaeologists, has said that they discovered the coins on November 15, 2023 during the preservation works. He stressed that labourers buried the pot again after discovering it. Later, some of them informed the senior officials of the Archives Department about the pot. Then, the archaeologists dug the pot out and safely secured the coins. According to Dr Shah, the weight of the pot is about five-and-a-half kilograms. Meanwhile, archaeologists shifted the pot, along with coins, to a soil testing laboratory situated near the site.
Earlier, senior researcher Sheikh Javed Sindhi claimed that archaeologists Rakhal Das Banerji, Sir John Marshall and Ernest John Henry Mackay had excavated around 4,348 copper coins at that site from 1922 to 1931. Those coins belonged to the Kushan Period dating back to the 2nd to 5th Century AD. Sindhi stated: "The present discovery is remarkable after 93 years and its credit goes to the Mohenjo-daro team."
It may be noted that Banerji (April 12, 1885 - May 23, 1930) was an Indian archaeologist and an officer of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). In 1919, he became the second ASI officer deputed to survey the site of Mohenjo-daro and returned there in the 1922-23 season. Banerji was the first person to propose the remote antiquity of the site in a letter to Sir John in 1923, and in effect of the Harappan culture. Ali Haidar Gadhi, a senior conservationist at Archaeology Mohenjo-daro, is of the opinion that Banerji discovered nearly 2,000 coins and 338 of them belonged to the period of Kushan ruler Vasudeva-1, with standing royal figure on obverse and Lord Shiva on the reverse while the bulk comprising 1,823 un-inscribed cast copper coins. "Another nine had a fire altar on the obverse and a crude figure on reverse," added Gadhi. He further said: "Although subsequent investigations suggest a break between the end of the Indus occupation and the Kushan phase, it is unlikely that the site was ever totally abandoned due to its high position and the protection it afforded against floods."
Dr Shah, too, believes that the newly-found coins most probably belonged to the Kushan Period. He told the media: "Though we have shifted the coins to the laboratory (for the time being), we will definitely hire experts to confirm the period which could be revealed from the inscriptions on the coins. We have to look for which dynasties of the Kushan Period the coins belong to." For his part, Rustam Bhutto, the In-charge of the Soil and Water Testing Laboratory, said that the treatment process for separating the amalgamated coins could take at least one month in order to make the figures and language on coins visible.
According to historians, the Kushans ruled the region from around the 1st Century CE to the 3rd Century CE. They played an important role in connecting various regions through trade, diplomacy and cultural exchange. Kujula Kadphises, also identified with the Yabgu of Guishuang named Qiu Jiuque in Hou Han shu, was the first Kushan ruler.
Numismatic evidence shows that Kujula Kadphises continued to imitate posthumous types of coinage of the last Indo-Greek ruler in central Afghanistan. Other copper coins issued by Kujula Kadphises copy the royal portrait on the obverse from gold coins of the Roman Emperor Augustus (BCE 31 - CE 14). Later, the image of the seated Roman emperor was transformed into a Kushan ruler, who was identified as Kujula Kadphises in Greek and Kharosthi legends. As the Kushans progressed further into the northwestern part of India, Kujula Kadphises adopted the title Great King and King of Kings on coins patterned on those of Saka and Parthian rulers.
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