Almost 4,400 years ago, in a coastal village of what is today Gujarat, entered a new group of people.

There already existed people who were making fine red ware. The newcomers were from the great cities of the north. They wanted to settle around, build their own urban centre, employ the indigenous people and make the place one of the chief centres of global maritime trade of that period.

The newcomers were the Harappans and the town they built became Lothal — one of the must visit places for most Harappan enthusiasts — professional as well as laymen.

Lothal was a small Harappan city and industrial centre in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. It was discovered and excavated in the 1950s by Indian archaeologist S R Rao.

Subsequently, in 1985, Rao wrote a very lucid account of all the features in Lothal. It was published by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

With 23 plates of black and white photographs and with an attempted deciphering of Harappan pictorial signs and reconstruction of the structures as well as the site map, the unpriced 48 pages booklet is a classic, in the sense it introduces Lothal in a wonderful way to the visitor.

Let us take one example. Lothal was not just a residential town but it also housed a warehouse and an industrial complex.

So a lot of weights, measurements, artifacts, tools etc, had been obtained. They all featured one remarkable aspect — standardisation. Now, let us just read what Dr Rao writes: