Recent Harappan Village Excavations Help Archaeologists Inch Closer To The Truth About The Civilisation

"It is just a small village settlement," remarks Professor K Krishnan of the MS University, regarding the recently completed excavation at a Harappan site in Vejalka village in the Botad district of Gujarat. However, the site has proved to be quite a discovery lending valuable insights into the Harappan way of life.

MS University

The site had been identified in the mid 1990s but the excavations were conducted over a month last year and completed within another month this year. "There are over 750 Harappan sites across Gujarat itself and they are of varying sizes," explains Professor Krishnan. "The village that we have excavated at Botad has given us clear evidences of mud houses, specific varieties of pottery along with some local variations of pottery, semi-precious stones, beads, belts and terracotta material. We have concluded our excavations at the site and the study of the materials discovered will be done over the next two years."

The excavations prove that villagers of that time had knowledge of ores and alloys, agricultural techniques and animal husbandry.

MS University

Dating the village to the period between 2500-2000 BC, he says, "The people were not nomads. They lived in mud houses and had a variety of occupations like craftsmanship, agriculture and herding animals among others. I am also sure that there were administrative sections in their cities as well." There is much more to know from upcoming excavations as, "the Harappan civilisation extends from present day Afghanistan to present day Maharashtra, covering nearly 1.4 million square kilometres!"

You can read about the largest discovered Harappan site at Rakhigarhi, here.

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Also discovered at the village site are conch shells. Some were even fashioned as bangles. "There is a high level of craftsmanship displayed at these sites that further endorse the fact that the residents of the civilisation were good architects and were of superior intelligence."

Where can you see the proof?

Apart from Lothal and Dholavira in Gujarat, which hold most of the excavated exhibits, the professor suggests the following museums to know more:

Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal

National Museum, New Delhi

Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum, Ahmedabad

Indian Museum, Kolkata

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai

Baroda Museum

Phillip Kay

"It is important to understand how human beings evolved over time and that is what we are trying to study," he says. When asked if there are any more clues to what led to the death of such a flourishing civilisation, he says, "There cannot be one reason. I am sure that a number of reasons led to the ultimate end of the Harappan way of life. We still have to search more to know what truly occurred."