Story of Lothal and new proof on its dockyard

National individuality is forged astatine the altar of history, a shared past acting arsenic the glue that makes a “people”. This is wherefore the find of the Indus Valley Civilisation successful 1924, which pushed backmost the past of India by much than 1,000 years, was a seminal infinitesimal for the nation. The sophistication of sites similar Mohenjodaro and Harappa was a substance of pridefulness for Indians, agelong seen arsenic backward by assemblage masters.

Unfortunately, this past civilisation was among the galore casualties of Partition. With astir each known sites located astir the Indus, suddenly, the civilisation Indians had proudly claimed arsenic their ain laic connected the different broadside of the border. This sent ASI scampering for caller sites successful India. The 1950s saw a flurry of archaeological activity. Among the galore sites discovered, Lothal was the astir significant. The tract was excavated betwixt 1955 and 1962.

Lothal, among southernmost Harappan sites, lies 80 km southwest of Ahmedabad, astatine the caput of the Gulf of Khambhat. In Gujarati, “Lothal” loosely translates to the “place of the dead” — a sanction fixed by villagers who knew of the beingness of an past colony (and remains of the agelong dead) overmuch earlier the site’s authoritative discovery.

The Lothal excavations were led by S R Rao, among the finest Indian archaeologists of his procreation who discovered implicit 30 Harappan sites. It is helium who identified the excavated Lothal operation arsenic a dockyard.

“The largest operation of baked bricks ever constructed by the Harappans is the 1 laid bare astatine Lothal… to service arsenic a dock for berthing ships and handling cargo,” helium wrote successful Penn Museum’s Expedition Magazine successful 1965. “Originally, the dock was designed to sluice ships 18 m to 20 m successful magnitude and 4 m to 6 m successful width… At slightest 2 ships could walk done the inlet simultaneously,” helium added.

Other grounds that Lothal served arsenic a hub for maritime commerce came from the beingness of seals — much than successful immoderate different tract successful Kathiawar/Saurashtra — that were apt utilized to seal documents oregon people packages, find of assorted items that were apt traded, a warehouse, and what Rao referred to arsenic chromatic anchors for ships.

But not everyone was convinced. In 1968, anthropologist Lawrence S Leshnik posited the “port” was really a reservoir for drinking h2o and irrigating crops. He held that the dimensions of the inlet for ships to dock were inadequate to enactment the draught (hull) of seafaring vessels. As was the extent of the “dock”. He besides questioned the inlet’s orientation. “It is not understandable wherefore the inlet should beryllium successful specified a presumption that entering ships would person to instrumentality a 90 grade crook successful bid to berth,” helium wrote.

The IIT-Gandhinagar survey addresses immoderate of these doubts.

Today, the Sabarmati flows into the Gulf of Khambhat astir 20 km from Lothal. The ASI has agelong believed that the stream utilized to tally overmuch person to the Harappan municipality astatine immoderate point.

Satellite imagery utilized by IIT-Gandhinagar researchers has “unveiled the aged channels of stream Sabarmati”, which utilized to travel close adjacent to Lothal. The stream gradually shifted its course, leaving the ruins of Lothal’s dockyard with a seemingly unusual orientation. The survey recovered that via the Sabarmati, boats could person sailed to arsenic acold arsenic Dholavira, different important Harappan tract successful the Rann of Kutch.

This, the survey said, enactment Lothal astatine the bosom of a bustling commercialized web that stretched from India each the mode to past Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), wherever the earliest Bronze Age civilisation flourished.

This is what Rao had theorised fractional a period ago: “Inhabitants exported cultivation and marine products and imported earthy materials specified arsenic gemstones and metals, needed for home depletion and for supplying the processing industries which sustained a ample population.”

Just similar h2o brought Lothal prosperity arsenic a commercialized port, it besides ushered successful destruction.

Lothal’s archaeological grounds indicates its settlements were rebuilt aggregate times. Rao identified 5 chiseled phases successful the site’s stratigraphic grounds dated circa 2400-1900 BCE. At its peak, precocious 3rd millennium BCE, Lothal whitethorn person been location to 15,000 people.

The decline, and eventual demolition of Lothal, occurred owed to catastrophic flooding, and the Sabarmati changing course. As Rao noted successful Lothal: A Harappan Port Town (1979), circa 2000 BCE, Lothal was submerged successful a catastrophic flood — the acropolis was levelled and flood debris and silt destroyed buildings. Although radical remained connected site, the colony was reduced to “an ill-planned colony lacking indispensable civic amenities”. Another flood destroyed the township for bully circa 1900 BCE.