 In October 1944, he opened his six-month archaeological field school in Taxila, where he instructed various students from across India in the methodologies of the discipline. Wheeler became very fond of his students, with one of them, B. B. Lal, later commenting that "behind the gruff exterior, Sir Mortimer had a very kind and sympathetic heart". Throughout his period in India, his students were some of the only individuals to whom Wheeler warmed; more widely, he was annoyed by what he saw as the idleness, incompetence and corruption of Indian society. Initially focusing on the northwest of the subcontinent, Wheeler was particularly fascinated by the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilization. On his initial inspection of the Indus Valley sites of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, he organised a very brief excavation which revealed fortifications around both settlements. He later led a more detailed excavation at Harappa, where he exposed further fortifications and established a stratigraphy for the settlement.
