A LITTLE OVER 70 km from Ahmedabad lies Lothal, one of many distinguished cities of the traditional Harappan Civilization, relationship to 2600 BCE to 2000 BCE, situated near the Gulf of Khambhat.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whereas reviewing the Nationwide Maritime Heritage Complicated developing at Lothal, spoke about how Lothal and Dholavira had been a part of India’s wealthy maritime historical past.

Lothal and Wager Dwarka, additionally in Gujarat, had been excavated by the late Archaeological Survey of India director Dr Shikaripura Ranganatha Rao. Courting again over 4600 years, the dockyard in Lothal is the oldest man-made dockyard, constructed of burnt bricks, roughly 240 m lengthy, 37 m vast and 4 m deep, with a warehouse situated subsequent to it.

The Lothal web site lay on a commerce route between the Harappan cities in Sindh and the Saurashtra peninsula, when Kutch was a part of the Arabian Sea. Lothal flourished with superior technological marvels that initiated India’s wealthy maritime historical past, however declined mysteriously. The proof from Lothal means that the Harappans had been extremely disciplined individuals who believed in orderliness, seen within the planning of cities and cities, uniform system of weights and measures, enforcement of commerce laws, environment friendly administration and standardization of products and companies to facilitate manufacturing.

The noteworthy artefacts present in Lothal embody fashions of boats, Persian Gulf seals, bangles, a mannequin of a terracotta mummy, a terracotta pyramid, Sumerian head, valuable and semi-precious stones like carnelian, lapis lazuli.

Being a port city, Lothal hosted merchants from totally different elements of the world and civilizations. Together with commerce merchandise, their cultural beliefs and values, concepts and revolutionary strategies additionally transferred to Lothal, making it the hub of the tradition and economic system of the world.

Dholavira in Kutch district lies on the Khadir Wager island, surrounded by the salt waste of the Nice Rann of Kutch. Additionally it is identified domestically as Kotada timba, and is among the largest websites the place the stays of the Harappan civilization have been discovered. Two monsoon channels — the Menhar and the Mansar — embrace the settlement. The ruins, together with the cemetery, cowl over 70 hectares, half of which is appropriated by the fortified Harappan settlement alone.

The moundsare situated lower than a kilometre northwest of Dholavira village. The groundwater reserve right here in its mushy sedimentary limestone deposits didn’t fail it even through the severest droughts in Gujarat within the ’80s.

This Harappan metropolis was found in 1968 by former ASI director basic Jagat Pati Joshi and excavated for 13 discipline seasons between 1989 and 2005 led by Ravindra Singh Bisht.

Dholavira is exclusive as a result of stays of a whole water system have been discovered right here. The individuals who lived there for an estimated 1,200 years are famous for his or her water conservation system utilizing rainwater harvesting strategies in an in any other case parched panorama.

Proof of inter-regional commerce with different Harappan cities, in addition to with cities within the Mesopotamia area and the Oman peninsula, have additionally been found. Ten massive inscriptions, carved within the Harappan Valley script, had been discovered which was billed because the world’s earliest signboard.

The location contains two elements: a walled metropolis and a cemetery to the west of the town. In 2021 it was on the checklist of UNESCO’s checklist of World Heritage Websites.

There may be proof that the Rann of Kutch was navigable in Harappan occasions, which might have given Dholavira direct or oblique entry to the ocean. It flourished through the Mature Harappan section, between 2600 and 1900 BCE.

Dholavira adopted a strict plan, however one among its form with a number of enclosures. The general plan has an acropolis or higher city, consisting of an enormous “fortress” situated on the town’s excessive level and an adjoining “bailey”; a center city, separated from the acropolis by an enormous ceremonial floor; and a decrease city, a part of which was occupied by a sequence of reservoirs.

The principal constructing materials was stone, though sun-dried bricks had been additionally used. Homes, wells and drains had been usually manufactured from native sandstone.

Dholavira had an environment friendly water administration system. Each the monsoon channels had been spanned with weirs at sure factors, not just for ponding water but additionally diverting it to the cascading sequence of reservoirs on the east, south and west.

The reservoir to the east of the fortress was the most important amongst all, ascertained to be 10.6 metres deep with flights of 30 steps.

The author is Founding Director Common, Nationwide Maritime Heritage Complicated, Gandhinagar, and CSIR Bhatnagar Fellow on the Centre for Mobile and Molecular Biology