Although much is now known about Harappan settlements and settlement patterns, there is still much to learn. The great cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa were extensively excavated in the earlier twentieth century, but Marshall's poor grasp of stratigraphy and Wheeler's failure to publish his results have hampered understanding of what was found, although recent work in both cities has done much to rectify this situation. From neither city is the full picture of urban life available; Harappa in particular has been badly damaged by brick robbing, and part of what remains lies inaccessible beneath modern buildings, while a later stupa covers part of Mohenjo-daro's high mound, and the city's lowest deposits are waterlogged. Both cities included extensive suburban areas outside the excavated city center that are almost completely unexplored. Other important settlements, such as Rakhigarhi, have seen only limited investigation, and publication of the results of many important excavations has lagged woefully far behind their completion. The city of Dholavira has recently begun to provide important new information, but only a fraction of its residential areas has been investigated. Some small settlements such as Allahdino have been more fully excavated, and in recent years a number of rural and specialized industrial settlements have also been uncovered. Investigations, however, have been very patchy. The most intensively studied area has been Gujarat; in contrast, although surveys have identified dense settlement in Bahawalpur, almost no sites have been excavated there. It is particularly regrettable that the suggested city of Ganweriwala has not seen excavation.
World History
