From which archaeological site of Indus Valley Civilization, the figures or models of boat are found ?

Question

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Correct — D, Mohenjodaro and Lothal. The Lothal half of this pair is firmly attested and is the reason the option is right: terracotta models of boats were recovered at Lothal, the Harappan port in Gujarat, around the great brick-lined basin that excavators identified as a dockyard. Those little clay boats are the standard textbook evidence that the Indus people built and used watercraft. The Mohenjodaro half rests on a different kind of object — a boat depicted on a seal from the site, showing a vessel with birds carried aboard, the device ancient sailors used to find land. That is a 'figure' of a boat rather than a three-dimensional model, and the question's own wording, 'figures OR models of boat', accommodates both. In the interest of honesty a student should know that the unambiguous, physically modelled boats are the Lothal ones; the Mohenjodaro attribution is standard in Indian textbooks and is supported by the seal, but it is the weaker half of the pair. None of that disturbs the answer, because no other option contains a site associated with boats at all.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Neither is a maritime site. Harappa, on the Ravi, is the type site of the civilisation and is remembered for its great granary, its citadel and the cemetery designated R-37; Kot Diji, in Sindh, is best known for the fortified Early Harappan settlement and the distinctive pottery phase that carries its name. Both are inland river-valley sites with no boat finds attached to them in the standard accounts.  (b) Both are inland sites on the northern rivers. Kalibangan in Rajasthan is famous for the earliest excavated ploughed field and for its rows of fire altars; Ropar (Rupnagar) in Punjab, on the Sutlej, was the first Harappan site excavated after Independence and is known for a burial in which a dog was interred with a human. Neither has produced boats or any evidence of seafaring.  (c) This is the option that requires a moment's thought, because both sites lie in Gujarat and Bhagatrav is a small coastal Harappan settlement near the estuaries of the Narmada and Kim, so a candidate can reasonably associate it with the sea. But coastal location is not the same as a boat find. Dhaulabira — Dholavira, on Khadir Bet in the Rann of Kutch — is celebrated for something entirely different: its elaborate system of check-dams, channels and stone-lined reservoirs, and the great ten-sign inscription often called the world's oldest signboard. Neither site carries the boat evidence that Lothal does.

Concept: Maritime trade is one of the defining features of the Mature Harappan phase, and Lothal is the site that carries most of the evidence. It lies in Gujarat near the head of the Gulf of Khambhat, and its most striking structure is a large trapezoidal basin lined with kiln-fired brick, with an inlet channel and a spill-way; the excavator S. R. Rao interpreted it as a tidal dockyard where boats could be floated in at high tide. Alongside it were found a warehouse on a raised platform, a bead factory, Persian Gulf-type seals and the terracotta boat models. Together these support the wider picture drawn from Mesopotamian records, which speak of trade with Meluhha — generally identified with the Indus region — through the intermediate stations of Dilmun and Magan. Not every scholar accepts the dockyard interpretation of the basin; some read it as an irrigation tank. The boat models, however, are not in dispute.

State PCS 2022 Q56 — History PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2022 Q56 — History PYQ with Answer