Mohenjo-daro: Unsealing an Ancient Indus City directed by Omar Khan

Mohenjo-daro: Unsealing an Ancient City explores the largest Bronze Age civilization (2600-1900 BCE), one that covered more territory than ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China combined, yet whose script remains unread. Guided by historian and Indus researcher Omar Khan, who has spent three decades building a major online resource on the Indus civilization with leading scholars, the film returns to the flagship city of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan to ask what this 4,000-year-old urban experiment can tell us.​

Structured in five chapters – The Story, The City, The Citadel, The Writing, and The Future – the 36- minute documentary moves from personal journey to archaeological evidence, from the city’s carefully planned streets and monumental platforms to the still-unresolved questions around its undeciphered seals. Stunning images of the site, and close looks at iconic artifacts such as the so- called “Dancing Girl” and “Priest-King” are interwoven with interviews from leading archaeologists and voices from the people living around Mohenjo-daro today.​

As it moves toward its final section, The Future, the film asks how politics, borders, and museum practices shape what this ancient city can mean for us today, how we see the past through the lens of the present, and what it might take to finally “unseal” the Indus civilization.

The film’s origin lies in the desire to bring together much of the most recent thinking, evidence and questions about the Indus civilization into one visually appealing experience. The wider public is unaware of the many new discoveries, theories and the civilizational significance of this extraordinary human achievement. It was the mother urban civilization of cultures across the region today and deserves far more and resources than have been deployed thus far. There is so much to still learn about our history that may help us better manage resources and the way we move into the future.