> Begin forwarded message: > > From: Asko Parpola <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Question > Date: 6. November 2022 at 18.16.53 EET > To: Madhav Deshpande <[email protected]> > > > Nowadays it appears that monsoonal rivers gradually dried in the Indus Valley > around 1900 BCE and that this was a major cause for the decline of the Indus > civilization: > > Giosan, Liviu, Peter D. Clift, Mark G. Macklin, Dorian Q. Fuller, Stefan > Constantinescu, Julie A. Durcan, Thomas Stevens, Geoff A. T. Duller, Ali R. > Tabrez, Kavita Gangal, Ronojoy Adhikari, Anwar Alizai, Florin Filip, Sam > VanLaningham, and James P. M. Syvitski, 2012. Fluvial landscapes of the > Harappan civilization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the > United States of America 109 (22), 29 May 2012, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1112743109. > Abstract: The collapse of the Bronze Age Harappan, one of the earliest urban > civilizations, remains an enigma. Urbanism flourished in the western region > of the Indo-Gangetic Plain for approximately 600 y, but since approximately > 3,900 y ago, the total settled area and settlement sizes declined, many sites > were abandoned, and a significant shift in site numbers and density towards > the east is recorded. We report morphologic and chronologic evidence > indicating that fluvial landscapes in Harappan territory became remarkably > stable during the late Holocene as aridification intensified in the region > after approximately 5,000 BP. Upstream on the alluvial plain, the large > Himalayan rivers in Punjab stopped incising, while downstream, sedimentation > slowed on the distinctive mega-fluvial ridge, which the Indus built in Sindh. > This fluvial quiescence suggests a gradual decrease in flood intensity that > probably stimulated intensive agriculture initially and encouraged > urbanization around 4,500 BP. However, further decline in monsoon > precipitation led to conditions adverse to both inundation- and rain-based > farming. Contrary to earlier assumptions that a large glacier-fed Himalayan > river, identified by some with the mythical Sarasvati, watered the Harappan > heartland on the interfluve between the Indus and Ganges basins, we show that > only monsoonal-fed rivers were active there during the Holocene. As the > monsoon weakened, monsoonal rivers gradually dried or became seasonal, > affecting habitability along their courses. Hydroclimatic stress increased > the vulnerability of agricultural production supporting Harappan urbanism, > leading to settlement downsizing, diversification of crops, and a drastic > increase in settlements in the moister monsoon regions of the upper Punjab, > Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh. > http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/05/24/1112743109.abstract > <http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/05/24/1112743109.abstract> > > Giosan, Liviu, William D. Orsi, Marco Coolen, Cornelia Wuchter, Ann G. > Dunlea, Kaustubh Thirumalai, Samuel E. Munoz, Peter D. Clift, Jeffrey P. > Donnelly, Valier Galy, Dorian Q. Fuller, 2018. Neoglacial climate anomalies > and the Harappan metamorphosis. Climate of the Past: Discussions. > https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2018-37 <https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2018-37> > Abstract: We show that strong winter monsoons between ca. 4,500 and 3,000 > years ago occurred during an interval of weak interhemispheric temperature > contrast, which we identify as the Early Neoglacial Anomaly (ENA), and were > accompanied by changes in wind and precipitation patterns across the eastern > Northern Hemisphere and Tropics. This coordinated climate reorganization may > have helped trigger the metamorphosis of the urban Harappan civilization into > a rural society through a push-pull migration from summer flood-deficient > river valleys to the Himalayan piedmont plains with augmented winter rains. > Finally, we speculate that time transgressive landcover changes due to > aridification of the Tropics may have led to a generalized instability of the > global climate during ENA at the transition from the warmer Holocene Optimum > to the cooler Neoglacial. > > The 30 feet of flood silt at Mohenjo-daro as “flood evidence” was discussed > in the 1960s & 1970s: > > Raikes, Robert L., & Robert H. Dyson, Jr., 1961. The prehistoric climate of > Baluchistan and the Indus Valley. American Anthropologist 63: 265-281. > Reprinted in: G. L. Possehl (ed.), Ancient cities of the Indus, 1979, pp. > 223-233. > > Raikes, Robert L., 1964. The end of the ancient cities of the Indus. American > Anthropologist 66.2: 284-299. Reprinted in: G. L. Possehl (ed.), Ancient > cities of the Indus, 1979, pp. 297-306. > > Raikes, Robert L., 1965. The Mohenjo-daro floods. Antiquity 39: 196-203. > > Dales, George F., 1966. The decline of the Harappans. Scientific American > 241(5): 92-100. Reprinted in: G. L. Possehl (ed.), Ancient cities of the > Indus, 1979, pp.307-312. > > Raikes, Robert L., 1967. The Mohenjo-daro floods — further notes. Antiquity > 41: 64-66. > > Lambrick, H. T., 1967. The Indus Flood Plain and the “Indus” Civilization. > Geographical Journal 133 (4): 483-495. Reprinted in: G. L. Possehl (ed.), > Ancient cities of the Indus, 1979, pp. 313-322. > > Dales, George F., & R. L. Raikes, 1968. The Mohenjo-daro floods: A rejoinder. > American Anthropologist 70 (5): 957-961. > > Raikes, Robert L., & George F. Dales, 1977. The Mohenjo-Daro floods > reconsidered. Journal of the Palaeontological Society of India 20: 251-260. > > Raikes, Robert L., 1979. The Mohenjo-daro bfloods: the cdebate continues. Pp. > 561-566 in: M. Taddei (ed.), South Asian Archaeology 1977. Neples. > > Best wishes, Asko Parpola > > >> On 6. Nov 2022, at 15.53, Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY >> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >> >> This question occurred to me recently. Does the massive flooding that >> Pakistan recently experienced give us some possibilities about the demise of >> the Indus Civilization? Are there any indications of such massive floods in >> Indus archaeology? I would appreciate any suggestions for reading on this >> topic. Best regards, >> >> Madhav M. Deshpande >> Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics >> University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA >> Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies >> Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India >> >> [Residence: Campbell, California, USA] >> >> _______________________________________________ >> INDOLOGY mailing list >> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >> https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology >
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