Ancient site · City
Rakhigarhi
Also known as Rakhi Garhi
One of the largest Indus cities, on the plain of the Ghaggar river in Haryana. Its mounds span a pre-Harappan village, an early town and a mature city of about 80–100 hectares or more, with planned streets, drains and a cemetery of the mature phase.
In 2019 scientists read the first ancient genome from an Indus skeleton, found here; it showed no trace of the steppe ancestry that spread into South Asia later.
- Dates
- village from c. 4600 BCE; city c. 2600–1900 BCE
- Still standing
- No, or only traces
- Location
- 29.29° N, 76.11° E
How we know
The Indus script cannot be read, so the city is known from excavation and radiocarbon dating.
Nearby sites
- Bhirrana claimed c. 7500 BCE; most scholars: 4th millennium BCE to c. 1900 BCE
- Sinauli c. 2000–1500 BCE
- Iron pillar of Delhi c. 400 CE (reign of Chandragupta II, c. 375–415 CE)
- Hastinapur Painted Grey Ware town c. 1100–800 BCE (Lal; 2021–22 dig: from c. 1500 BCE); occupied into medieval times
- Kalibangan c. 3500–1750 BCE
- Harappa c. 3300–1300 BCE; city at its height c. 2600–1900 BCE