Is Haryana home to older, larger Harappan-era site?

Is a village in Haryana sitting on top of a rare archaeological site that is older and larger than Mohenjo-daro, perhaps the best-known human settlement of the Indus Valley civilization?

Research and findings by archaeologists and officials in Haryana have indicated that this could indeed be true for Rakhigarhi village in Haryana's Hisar district, over 200 km from Chandigarh.

Located on the Jind-Hansi road, about eight kilometres from Narnaund town, the seven mounds in the area could change history related to the Indus Valley civilization (now referred to as the Harappan civilization), researchers say.

Vijai Vardhan, Haryana's principal secretary for archaeology and museums, told IANS: "This site could throw up new information about the Indus Valley civilization. Archaeologists who have been to Rakhigarhi say that the town underneath these mounds could be larger and even 500 years older than Mohenjo-daro."

"Excavations conducted at Rakhigarhi indicate that the settlement witnessed all the phases of the Harappan civilization - the early Harappan (3200-2700 BCE) as well as the Mature Harappan (2700-1800 BCE). This positions Rakhigarhi as a unique Harappan site which promises to reveal new civilization contours by pushing the Indus Valley civilization by a thousand years or more," said a latest publication of the department of archaeology and museums, authored by Vardhan. [...] Business Standard