Themes that would have interested Cunningham: Cunningham was primarily interested in the archaeology of the Early Historic period (sixth century BCE to fourth century CE) and later periods. He relied heavily on written texts and inscriptions as guides for investigation. He used the accounts of Chinese Buddhist pilgrims who visited between the fourth and seventh centuries CE to locate early settlements. He also focused on collecting, documenting, and translating inscriptions and recovering artefacts with cultural value.

Issues of interest since 1947: Since the 1980s, there has been growing international interest in Harappan archaeology with specialists from the subcontinent and abroad working jointly at Harappa and Mohenjodaro. Archaeologists now use modern scientific techniques including surface exploration to recover traces of clay, stone, metal, plant and animal remains. They minutely analyse every scrap of available evidence, which promises to yield interesting results in the future.