Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:55:56.790Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Subsistence System, Paleoecology, and 14C Chronology at Kanmer, a Harappan Site in Gujarat, India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2016

Pankaj Goyal ,
Anil K Pokharia ,
Jeewan Singh Kharakwal ,
Pramod Joglekar ,
Y S Rawat  and
Toshiki Osada
Pankaj Goyal
Affiliation:
1Deecan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, India
Anil K Pokharia*
Affiliation:
2Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, 53 University Road, Lucknow, UP, India
Jeewan Singh Kharakwal
Affiliation:
3Institute of Rajasthan Studies, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India
Pramod Joglekar
Affiliation:
1Deecan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, India
Y S Rawat
Affiliation:
4Gujarat State Archaeology Department, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
Toshiki Osada
Affiliation:
5Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto, Japan
*
Corresponding author. Email: pokharia.anil@gmail.com.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article presents the results of 4 excavation seasons in which botanical and animal remains were collected at the Harappan site of Kanmer in the Kachchh District of Gujarat, India. The findings revealed a subsistence economy consisting of food production with domesticated plants and animals, hunting, fishing, and wild plant gathering. Cultural relics and radiocarbon dating support our identification of different cultural periods at the site. This study provides new insights into the subsistence strategies during different phases of occupation and offers the potential for new subsistence models to be applied at nearby sites, particularly in this peripheral zone of the Indus civilization.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , 2013 , pp. 141 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Agrawal, DP, Kharakwal, JS, Rawat, YS, Osada, T, Goyal, P. 2010. Redefining the Harappan hinterland. Antiquity 84(323). URL: http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/agrawal323/.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryson, RA, Swain, AM. 1981. Holocene variations of monsoon rainfall in Rajasthan. Quaternary Research 16(2):135–4.Google Scholar
Chanchala, S. 1994. Harappan plant economy of Kutch, Gujarat. Geophytology 23(2):227–3.Google Scholar
Deo, SG, Savita, G, Rajaguru, SN. 2011. Holocene environmental changes and cultural patterns in coastal western India: a geoarchaeological perspective. Quaternary International 229(1–2):132–9.Google Scholar
Chase, BA. 2007. Meat provisioning and the integration of the Indus civilisation: a perspective from Gujarat (India) [unpublished PhD dissertation]. Madison: University of Wisconsin-Madison.Google Scholar
Enzel, Y, Ely, LL, Ramesh, R, Amit, R, Lazar, B, Rajaguru, SN, Baker, VR, Sandler, A. 1999. High-resolution Holocene environmental changes in the Thar Desert, northwestern India. Science 284(5411):125–8.Google Scholar
Ghosh, SS, Lal, K. 1963. Plant remains from Rangpur and other explorations in Gujarat. Ancient India 18–19:161–7.Google Scholar
Goyal, P. 2011. Investigations into animal-based subsistence of the Harappan culture in Gujarat with special reference to Kanmer [unpublished PhD dissertation]. Pune: Deccan College and Post Graduate Research Institute.Google Scholar
Gupta, SK. 1975. Silting of the Rann of Kutch during Holocene. Indian Journal of Earth Sciences 2:163–7.Google Scholar
Joglekar, PP, Goyal, P. 2010. Faunal remains from Jaidak (Pithad), a Sorath Harappan Site in Gujarat. Man and Environment XXXV(1):76–86.Google Scholar
Joglekar, PP, Goyal, P. 2011. Faunal remains from Shikarpur, a Harappan site in Gujarat, India. Iranian Journal of A rchaeological Studies 1(1):15–25.Google Scholar
Kajale, MD. 1996. Plant remains. In: Dhavalikar, MK, Raval, MR, Chitalwala, YM, editors. Kuntasi: A Harappan Emporium on West Coast. Pune: Deccan College Post-Graduate Research Institute. p 285–9.Google Scholar
Kenoyer, JM. 1991. The Indus Valley tradition of Pakistan and western India. Journal of World Prehistory 5(4):1–64.Google Scholar
Kenoyer, JM. 1998. Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Khan, FA. 1992. Ancient cultural contacts across the Indus Valley. In: Possehl, GL, editor. South Asian Archaeology Studies. New Delhi: IBH Publishing. p 33–43.Google Scholar
Kharakwal, JS, Rawal, YS, Osada, T. 2007. Kanmer: a Harappan site in Kachchh, Gujarat, India. In: Osada, T, editor. Linguistics, Archaeology and the Human Past, Occasional Paper 2. Kyoto: RIHN. p 21–46.Google Scholar
Kharakwal, JS, Rawat, YS, Osada, T. 2008. Preliminary observations on the excavation at Kanmer, Kachchh, India 2006–2007. In: Osada, T, Uesugi, A, editors. Linguistics, Archaeology and the Human Past, Occasional Paper 5. Kyoto: RIHN. p 5–23.Google Scholar
Kharakwal, JS, Rawat, YS, Osada, T. 2009. Excavations at Kanmer: a Harappan site in Kachchh, Gujarat. Puratattva 39:147–6.Google Scholar
Kharakwal, JS, Rawat, YS, Osada, T. 2011. Annual report of excavations at Kanmer 2007–08 and 2008–09. In: Osada, T, Uesugi, A, editors. Linguistics, Archaeology and the Human Past, Occasional Paper 10. Kyoto: RIHN. p 71–104.Google Scholar
Kharakwal, JS, Rawat, YS, Osada, T. 2012. Excavation at Kanmer 2005-06–2008-09. Kyoto: Indus Project, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature.Google Scholar
Lancelotti, C, Madella, M. 2010. Preliminary anthracological analysis from Harappan Kanmer: human-environment interaction as seen through fuel resources exploitation and use. In: Osada, T, Uesugi, A, editors. Linguistics, Archaeology and the Human Past, Occasional Paper 10. Kyoto: RIHN. p 129–4.Google Scholar
Madella, M, Fuller, DQ. 2006. Palaeoecology and the Harappan civilisation of South Asia: a reconsideration. Quaternary Science Reviews 25(11–12):1283–301.Google Scholar
Maurya, DM, Thakkar, MG, Patidar, AK, Bhandari, S, Goyal, B, Chamyal, LS. 2008. Late Quaternary geomorphic evolution of the coastal zone of Kachchh, western India. Journal of Coastal Research 24(3):746–5.Google Scholar
Meadow, RH. 1989. Continuity and change in the agriculture of the greater Indus Valley: the palaeoethnobotanical and zooarchaeological evidence. In: Kenoyer, JM, editor. Old Problems and New Perspectives in the Archaeology of South Asia. Madison: University of Wisconsin, Department of Anthropology. p 61–74.Google Scholar
Meadow, RH. 1996. The origin and spread of agriculture and pastoralism in northwestern South Asia. In: Possehl, GL, editor. Harappan Civilization: A Recent Perspective. New Delhi: IBH Publishing. p 295–320.Google Scholar
Nath, B. 1962–1963. Animal remains from Rangpur. Ancient India 18–19:153–6.Google Scholar
Pokharia, AK, Kharakwal, JS, Rawat, YS, Osada, T, Nautiyal, CM, Srivastava, A. 2011. Archaeobotany and archaeology at Kanmer, a Harappan site in Kachchh, Gujarat: evidence for adaptation in response to climatic variability. Current Science 100(12):1833–46.Google Scholar
Possehl, GL. 1990. Revolution in the urban revolution: the emergence of Indus urbanization. Annual Review of Anthropology 19:261–8.Google Scholar
Possehl, GL. 1999. Climate and the eclipse of the ancient cities of the Indus. In: Dales, HN, Kukla, G, Weiss, H, editors. The Third Millennium BC Climate Change and Old World Collapse. Volume 49. Berlin: Springer. p 193–242.Google Scholar
Prasad, V, Phartiyal, B, Sharma, A. 2007. Evidence of enhanced winter precipitation and the prevalence of a cool and dry climate during the mid to late Holocene in mainland Gujarat, India. The Holocene 17(7):889–9.Google Scholar
Rajagopalan, G, Mittre, V, Sekar, B. 1978. Birbal Sahni Institute radiocarbon measurements I. Radiocarbon 20(3):398–404.Google Scholar
Rajaguru, SN, Deo, SG. 2008. Preliminary observations on Holocene fluvial sediments around Kanmer, Gujarat, India. In: Osada, T, Uesugi, A, editors. Linguistics, Archaeology and the Human Past, Occasional Paper 5. Kyoto: RIHN. p 1–3.Google Scholar
Reddy, SN. 1994. Plant usage and subsistence modeling: An ethnoarchaeological approach to the Late Harappan of Northwest India [PhD dissertation]. Madison: University of Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Burr, GS, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Hajdas, I, Heaton, TJ, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, McCormac, FG, Manning, SW, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Southon, JR, Talamo, S, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51(4):1111–50.Google Scholar
Shah, DR, Bhan, KK. 1992. Faunal remains. In: Hegde, KTM, Bhan, KK, Sonawane, VH, Krishnan, K, Shah, DR, editors. Excavation at Nageswar, Gujarat: A Harappan Shell Working Site on the Gulf of Kutch. Baroda: MS University of Baroda. p 145–7.Google Scholar
Sharma, AK. 1990. Animal bone remains. In: Joshi, JP, editor. Excavation at Surkotada 1971–72 and Exploration in Kutch (Memoirs of Archaeological Survey of India No. 87). New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India. p 372–8.Google Scholar
Singhvi, AK, Kale, VS. 2009. Palaeoclimate Studies in India: Last Ice Age to the Present. New Delhi: Indian National Science Academy. p 1–34.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Polach, HA. 1977. Discussion: reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19(3):355–6.Google Scholar
Swain, AM, Kutzbach, JE, Hastenrath, S. 1983. Estimates of Holocene precipitation for Rajasthan, India, based on pollen and lake-level data. Quaternary Research 19(1):1–17.Google Scholar
Thomas, PK, Joglekar, PP, Arati, D-M, Pawankar, SJ. 1995. Harappan subsistence patterns with special reference to Shikarpur, a Harappan site in Gujarat. Man and Environment XX(2):33–42.Google Scholar
Thomas, PK, Matsushima, Y, Arati, D. 1996. Faunal remains. In: Dhavalikar, MK Raval, MR, Chitalwala, YM, editor. Kuntasi, A Harappan Emporium on West Coast. Pune: Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute. p 297–330.Google Scholar
Vishnu-Mittre, , Savithri, R. 1982. Food economy of the Harappans. In: Possehl, GL, editor. Harappan Civilization. New Delhi: IBH Publishing. p 205–2.Google Scholar
Wagner, GE. 1983. Late Harappan crops in Gujarat. Paper presented at symposium Late Harappan Civilization in Gujarat. The 12th Annual Meeting, Mid-Atlantic Region of the Association for Asian Studies. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA, 28–30 October.Google Scholar
Weber, SA. 1991. Plants and Harappan Subsistence: An Example of Stability and Change from Rojdi. New Delhi: IBH Publishing.Google Scholar
Weber, SA. 1992. South Asian archaeobotanical variability. In: Jarrige, C, editor. South Asian Archaeology 1989. Monographs in World Archaeology 14. Madison: Prehistory Press. p 283–9.Google Scholar
Weber, SA. 1998. Out of Africa: the initial impact of millets in South Asia. Current Anthropology 39(2):267–7.Google Scholar
Weber, SA. 1999. Seeds of urbanism: palaeoethnobotany and the Indus civilization. Antiquity 73(282):813–2.Google Scholar
Weber, SA, Barela, T, Lehman, H. 2010. Ecological continuity: an explanation for agricultural diversity in the Indus civilization and beyond. Man and Environment XXXV(1):62–75.Google Scholar