Foreign delegates arrive for Moenjodaro moot

Scores of foreign delegates have arrived in Karachi to attend the three- day international conference on Moenjodaro to be held from February 9 to 11 in Larkana. Scholars from the US, Japan, Italy, Spain, France and Britain, including Ayumu konasukawa from Japan, Denys Frenz from Italy, Dr Carla and Dr Marco from Spain, Brad Chase and Dr Richard Meadow from the US have already arrived.
The Culture Department of the Government of Sindh and the National Fund for Moenjodaro (NFM) are hosting the conference. It is expected that many recommendations of the conference will go a long way in resolving the pending issues, and help studies in the field to find the right way forward, said the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities, Syed Sardar Ali Shah, who is also the chairman of the Executive Board of the NFM.
He said that arrangements for the international conference on Moenjodaro are finalised, and that it is going to be a historic event as the only event of this kind was held in 1973 by then President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He said the conference on Moenjodaro is an effort to bring together scholars from different countries to discuss and seek answers to the diverse academic questions raised, and to propose measures for the conservation of the Indus Valley site from further deterioration.
The Minister of Culture further said that the conference will be a unique event in which experts will hold discussions on archaeology, ecology, geology, history, regional linkages, technology, urbanism, Moenjodaro's history and the paleontology of the Indus valley. Other themes include the emerging content of the Middle East's linkages to the Indus Valley civilisation.
The convenor of the conference, Dr Kaleemullah Lashari, said that the Indus Valley Civilisation has received a good deal of academic attention. He said institutions where work relevant to South Asia is undertaken have been instrumental in putting in place projects leading to extended studies on Neolithic and Bronze Age sites throughout the region, which spread to India, Afghanistan, Iran and the Persian Gulf region.
He said that the conference will discuss fresh research, try to find out means of enlarging the scope of academic studies, forge new collaborations, consider the age-old question of preservation of archaeological ruins exposed to natural and manmade changes, and above all presentation of the Bronze Age sites.