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Aryan Invasion Theory - A myth

>From DAWN 07/07/96


Scientist gives new theory for Indus Civilisation demise
By H. A. Hamied


KARACHI, July 6: Moenjodaro, the largest and most important prehistoric
settlement in the lower Indus basin may have been abandoned after the
river shifted its course to where it is today, placing the city in a
hazardous position close to the brunt of the annual flood, an American
archaeologist working in Sindh for the last 20 years has claimed. In his
report on the changing features of the lower Indus Basin landscape and the
Indus Civilisation, the archaeologist from Lehman College, The City
University of New York, has said that aerial photographs and field
research has revealed numerous post-Pleistocene river remnants marking the
changing course of the Indus River.

Archaeological evidence reveals that the lower Indus basin was not
extensively occupied until the middle of the third millennium BCE.
Evidence of a major canal or embankment system to control floodwaters of
the Sindhu and Nara Nadi for winter crop cultivation is lacking and
presumably, therefore, traditional inundation irrigation or `sailabi' was
used at that time.

Geomorphologic (studying the changing physical landscape) and historical
data were used to connect river remnants and to delineate former courses
of the Indus river from northern Sindh to the Arabian Sea. Dr Flam is also
the director of the Sindh Archaeological Project and the Ghazi Shah
excavations. Sindhu Nadi, he said, was a prior course of the Indus
river during 4000-3000 BCE and also at this time a second exclusive
perennial river, Nara Nadi, existed in the east part of the lower Indus
basin.

According to Dr Flam, the Sindhu and the Nara Nadi were confluent in the
south-eastern lower Indus basis, with the prehistoric coastline occurring
north of the present location. Ancient river course locations affected
prehistoric Indus civilisation (2600-2000 BCE) through flood hazards and
access to water for irrigation. Archaeological research in the Indus river
valley of Pakistan has documented the development of prehistoric cultures
during the fourth and third millennia BC (4000-2000 BCE), yet no detailed
research has specifically addressed issues concerned with land-forms and
dynamics of the Indus river that had significance to human behaviour in
prehistory.

The location of the main channel of the Indus river has been assumed by
many to have remained unchanged since the Pleistocene Age. Until recently
Dr Flam was the only archaeologist to recognise that the ancient Indus
environment may have been different from that of today, while Holes (1968)
explicitly delineated more recent historical changes in the course of the
Indus river and showed them to have been radically different from modern
conditions.

Furthermore, archaeological and historical studies have documented the
effects of Indus river course changes on cultural developments in the
lower Indus basin during historical times and this must have certainly
been the case during the prehistoric period. Dr Flam is of the view that a
more explicit approach to the behaviour of the Indus is needed to
reconstruct its ancient environment and the human adaptations to it. He
further says that the prehistoric coastline was probably located somewhere
between the Rann of Kutch on the east side of the lower Indus basin and
between Hyderabad and Thatta on the west.
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