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A team of archaeologists claim to have unearthed sufficient
evidence to suggest that Harappan civilisation evolved in India,
contradicting the hypothesis that the ancients migrated from Sind
and Baluchistan, reports UNI.
The team of archaeologists, led by Dr Vasant Shinde of the Deccan
College here, claims to have discovered a clear early Harappan
phase at Padri village in Talaja Taluka of Bhavnagar district in
Gujarat.
Since no local evolution of Harappans had earlier been discovered
in Gujarat, the archaeologists had surmised that the Harappans had
migrated from Sind and Baluchistan through Kutch to Saurashtra or
the mainland of Gujarat.
But, excavations at Padri have revealed for the first time a
three-fold cultural sequence - the early Harappan phase which
characterises the pre-urbanisation period, the mature Harappan
phase when the real urbanisation of the Harappans occurred and,
lastly, the early historic period. This discovery has led the
archaeologists to debunk the migration theory.
The Harappans may not have migrated at all. Instead, the evolution
of the Harappan culture must have taken place independently and
simultaneously in different regions and, gradually, intra-regional
trading contacts may have been established, says Dr Shinde.
The excavations at Padri had been in progress since 1990. They
were undertaken to study the lesser-known rural and early farming
cultures as all Previous excavation efforts Acre aimed at
unearthing the urban culture which is the hallmark of the organised
socio-political Harappan civilisation.
During the course of the excavations, the team unearthed a rural
settlement that had been raised particularly for manufacturing
salt. In fact, this is the first time that evidence of salt
manufacturing activities among the early people has been
discovered, Dr Shinde said and added that the rural settlement
dated back to around 3000 to 2600 BC.
At first, the archaeologists thought it prudent to describe this
phase of evolution as pre-Harappan rather than as an early-Harappan
phase. But, large-scale excavations carried out at the site have
now convinced them that it was indeed an early-Harappan phase which
slowly transformed into the typical urbanite and refined 'mature
Harappan phase.
>From the rural site, the archaeologists recovered a large number of
coarse pottery. But, at upper levels of excavation, the
archaeologists found pottery which was more refined and resembled
the Harappan ceramic ware. There is also a gradual development in
the techniques of manufacturing pots - from the hand-modelling
technique to the more sophisticated wheel-made technique.
Moreover, the finding of Harappan letters on the pottery recovered
from the rural settlement has convinced the archaeologists that the
Harappan letters had originated during this time and had gradually
developed into the Harappan script during the mature or urban
phase.
The archaeologists also found a great deal of similarity between
the copper articles recovered from the rural settlement and those
recovered from Harappan urban settlements. The size of mud-bricks
used for structural purposes during the early phase appears to have
been standardised subsequently during the mature phase, according
to Dr Shinde.
Furthermore, excavations at Padri have also revealed the existence
of a stratified society with the presence of some kind of central
authority - a feature which has been noticed in a number of
Harappan sites like Harappa, Mohenjo Daro, Kalibangan, Lothal,
Dholavira, Rojdi and Kuntasi.
These findings demonstrate that there is overlapping and continuity
in every aspect from the early Harappan to the mature Harappan
phase at Padri, according to the archaeologists who, therefore,
have surmised that the Harappan culture might have evolved
simultaneously and independently in different regions and the
migration theory may, after all he false.
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