Cunningham’s confusion highlights the challenges early archaeologists faced when contextualizing ancient artifacts within their time periods. Cunningham, more interested in the archaeology of the Early Historic period, relied heavily on written texts from Buddhist pilgrim accounts. When he excavated sites like Harappa, the artifacts he found were misinterpreted, as they did not fit within his established historical framework that began with the Ganga Valley cities. Consequently, he failed to recognize the significance of the Harappan civilization, which was later properly understood by archaeologists like Daya Ram Sahni and John Marshall, who uncovered the rich context of Harappan artifacts and their contemporaneous relationships with other ancient cultures.