7500BC 'Lost River' civilisation found
2002-01-16 16:06
New Delhi - A "lost river" civilisation dating back to 7500BC has been
discovered off India's western coast, a senior cabinet minister
said Wednesday.
"The findings buried 40 metres below the sea reveal some
sort of human civilisation, a courtyard, staircase, a bathroom or a
temple or something," said Murli Manohar Joshi, minister for human
resources and also ocean development.
"It looks like a Harrapan-type civilisation but dating way back
to 7500BC," he said.
The earliest discovered human civilisations in the sub-continent
are the sites of the Harrapan and Indus Valley communities, which
date back to 2500BC.
The "marine archaeological findings" have been made by a joint
exercise conducted by the Indian Ocean development and archaeology
institutes in the Gulf of Cambay region, off the coast of Gujarat
state in the Arabian Sea.
Objects such as pieces of construction material, artefacts with
rectangular holes, fused objects, pottery, beads, broken pieces of
sculpture, a fossilised jaw bone and human teeth and a cut wooden
log have all been retrieved out from the site. Carbon-dating and
other methods have dated the finds to around 7500BC.
Acoustic imagery has also revealed a river stretch of nine
kilometres along which all the objects have been found.
The imagery also shows built-up structures protruding from the
seabed.
"We have formed a group to undertake further studies," Joshi
said. "We have to find out what happened then ... where and how did
this civilisation vanish ... what kind of seismological activity is
taking place here."
The minister said the discovery could have implications
world-wide.
"The idea is to tell the world that here is an area which needs
further examination due to the discovery of objects." - Sapa/AFP
- SAPA