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The Anarta pots/jars from Nagwada: 1-9 Gritty Red ware; 10,11 Coarse Grey ware; 12 Grey ware: (1, 2, 5 Cream slip)
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The paper presents the regional identity and distinctive features of a group of non-Harappan pottery associated with the Harappan affiliated Chalcolithic settlements in North Gujarat. The regional tradition in pottery has been equated with a distinct socio-economic group within the Chalcolithic society. The regional model questions the concept of a...
Citations
... Most rainfall occurs between June and September, during the Indian summer monsoon, shaping agricultural and pastoral activities. Prolonged drought is a recurrent phenomenon, particularly in the driest areas of north Gujarat and Kachchh (Ajithprasad & Sonawane 2011), with implications for the resilience of agricultural strategies. ...
Climate change is often cited in the ‘collapse’ of complex societies and linked to agricultural resilience or lack thereof. In this article, the authors consider how demand affected agricultural strategies as farmers navigated the transformations of the Late Harappan phase ( c . 1900–1700 BC) of the Indus tradition. Through the modelling of monocropping/multicropping, low/high yield crops, and supply-driven versus flexible production, various economic, environmental and social demands are explored with reference to the choices of farmers and how these decisions differed regionally, and how they impacted the wider Late Harappan de-urbanisation process. The authors’ archaeobotanical perspective on the Indus contributes to wider understanding of how urban societies and their agricultural bases change over time.
... The site also reveals evidence of small-scale production of stone tools. The site also reveals some regional chalcolithic ceramic traditions like Anarta (Ajithprasad and Sonawane 2011;Rajesh et al. 2013) and Glazed Reserved Slip Ware (Krishnan et al. 2005). ...
The evolution and proliferation of human civilization garner great interest, not only from the scientific community but also from the general public. Each year, millions of tourists visit archaeological locations across the globe. Ancient civilizations are often shrouded in mystery due to the limited data available from archaeological structures. Allied sciences like geology have been of tremendous assistance in understanding the relationship between man and the environment. The Kachchh region is home to several sites of the Indus Civilization (also known as the Harappan Civilization). Due to its geological setting, Kachchh also has unique structural, geomorphological, petrological, paleontological and archaeological attributes. Therefore, the region attracts the attention of geologists, archaeologists and tourists alike. The present study describes Harappan sites in Kachchh which have been proposed as potential locations for geoarchaeological tourism. Since UNESCO World Heritage archaeological sites like Dholavira are already popular with tourists, it acts as an impetus for geotourism and geoarchaeological research. Geoarchaeological tourism in Kachchh can serve as a great avenue for boosting the economy of the local communities by utilization of the existing geological and archaeological assets and contributing to the nation’s growth.
... BC). Anarta pottery has been recovered in different proportions from over 60 prehistoric sites, but it is most common in seasonal camps occupied by semi-nomadic agro-pastoralists, such as Loteshwar (Ajithprasad and Sonawane, 2011;Rajesh et al., 2013a), whereas Pre-Prabhas pottery has only been recovered at Datrana, a lithic blade workshop (Ajithprasad, 2011;Gadekar et al., 2013; FIGURE 1 | Map of Gujarat showing the case studies (red triangles) and other archeological sites mentioned in the text (green circles). Background map prepared by Francesc C. Conesa. ...
This study attempts a holistic approach to past foodways in prehistoric northern Gujarat, India, by considering evidence of food production, distribution, preparation and consumption. We present here the results of a pilot residue study, integrating lipid and starch grain analyses, conducted on 28 ceramic vessels from three Chalcolithic/Harappan settlements (c. 3300–2000 cal. BC) in northern Gujarat, which are discussed in the light of previous evidence of plant and animal acquisition and preparation strategies in this region. We aim to explore how the prehistoric inhabitants of northern Gujarat transformed ingredients into meals, focusing on how different foodstuffs were processed. When assessed on their own, the lipid and compound-specific isotopic data suggest that animal fats were primarily processed in ceramic vessels, specifically non-ruminant fats. However, lipid residue analysis favors the detection of fat-rich animal products and is often unable to disentangle signatures resulting from the mixing of plant and animal products. The incorporation of starch grain analyses provides evidence for the processing of a range of plants in the vessels, such as cereals, pulses and underground storage organs. Together, the results provide a holistic perspective on foodways and a way forward in overcoming preservational and interpretational limitations.
... Varahvo Timbo has hunter-gatherer occupation (5600 to 5000 bce), and Loteshwar has both huntergatherer (5168-4708 bce) and Anarta sedentary culture (3681-2243 bce). Holocene archaeological research in this region has identified a distinctive sequence of cultures showing the existence of hunter-gatherer (microlith-using Mesolithic communities), semi-nomadic agropastoral, and urban Harappan settlements well adapted to arid to hyper-arid environments (Possehl 1992;Ajithprasad 2002Ajithprasad , 2004Ajithprasad , 2011Ajithprasad and Sonawane 2011). The majority of later prehistoric settlements are associated with interdunal depressions, with assured water resource during most of the year, even though the area receives less summer monsoon relative to other areas of the subcontinent. ...
Neolithic agriculture in the Indian subcontinent
... Differences in environment and material culture divide the Indus civilization into five regions: northwest India, the Upper Indus Valley, Cholistan, the Lower Indus Valley, and Gujarat (Chakrabarti 2009;Kenoyer 1997a;Possehl 1999;Sinopoli 2015;Wright 2010) (Fig. 1). By around 3300 BC, people in each region began building permanent settlements-each maximally around 10 ha-that had large architectural features, such as rectilinear mud-brick architecture and mud-brick walls surrounding a portion or the entirety of the settlement ( Fig. 2) (e.g., Ajithprasad 2002;Ajithprasad and Sonawane 2011;Bisht 2015;Joshi et al. 1984;Lal 2003;Possehl 1999;Rajesh et al. 2013). At Kalibangan, for example, thick walls enclosed a complex of smaller "houses" that were arranged in neat rectilinear blocks (Lal 2003). ...
The cities of the Indus civilization were expansive and planned with large-scale architecture and sophisticated Bronze Age technologies. Despite these hallmarks of social complexity, the Indus lacks clear evidence for elaborate tombs, individual-aggrandizing monuments, large temples, and palaces. Its first excavators suggested that the Indus civilization was far more egalitarian than other early complex societies, and after nearly a century of investigation, clear evidence for a ruling class of managerial elites has yet to materialize. The conspicuous lack of political and economic inequality noted by Mohenjo-daro’s initial excavators was basically correct. This is not because the Indus civilization was not a complex society, rather, it is because there are common assumptions about distributions of wealth, hierarchies of power, specialization, and urbanism in the past that are simply incorrect. The Indus civilization reveals that a ruling class is not a prerequisite for social complexity.
... Varahvo Timbo has hunter-gatherer occupation (5600 to 5000 bce), and Loteshwar has both huntergatherer (5168-4708 bce) and Anarta sedentary culture (3681-2243 bce). Holocene archaeological research in this region has identified a distinctive sequence of cultures showing the existence of hunter-gatherer (microlith-using Mesolithic communities), semi-nomadic agropastoral, and urban Harappan settlements well adapted to arid to hyper-arid environments (Possehl 1992;Ajithprasad 2002Ajithprasad , 2004Ajithprasad , 2011Ajithprasad and Sonawane 2011). The majority of later prehistoric settlements are associated with interdunal depressions, with assured water resource during most of the year, even though the area receives less summer monsoon relative to other areas of the subcontinent. ...
This chapter aims to survey the origins and development of early subsistence production as evidenced by archaeobotanical data sets from early Neolithic/Chalcolithic sites in the Indian subcontinent. The term Indian subcontinent is preferred to either South Asia or India. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Bhutan together constitute a natural geographic entity as these regions are mutually inclusive and reveal prehistoric cultural continuity. Similarly relevant information on the reconstruction of Holocene monsoon, climate change, consequent vegetation changes, and the vegetation context of early agriculture is available to contextualize ancient agriculture in its natural setting across the subcontinent. The development of early agriculture in the subcontinent can best be understood against the background of early developments in two distinct geographical regions: Southwest Asia and East Asia. Phytoliths and starch grains provide evidence related to irrigated agriculture, dry farming, and vegeculture, including crop‐processing activities.
... The complexities of the social processes that characterized the Integration Era are particularly apparent in the distinct areas that comprise the modern Indian state of Gujarat, where the cultural geography and historical trajectory of the Indus Civilization varies considerably from that characteristic of the alluvial plains of the greater Punjab and Sindh (Ajithprasad and Sonawane, 2011;Sonawane, 2011;Sonawane and Ajithprasad, 1994). Geographically distinct from the Indus river system, Gujarat is comprised of: (1) the large landmass of Kachchh surrounded by the Great and Little Ranns that were once extensions of the Arabian Sea but are today seasonally inundated salt flats; (2) the peninsula of Saurashtra, which is drained by numerous seasonal streams radiating from the hilly inland to the coasts; and (3) the alluvial plains of the mainland, traditionally divided by the Mahi River into more arid North Gujarat and wetter South Gujarat. ...
... Hunter-gatherer occupations are characterized by a microlithic industry without ceramics, and these sites are defined as mesolithic (e.g., Sankalia 1987) or microlithic (Patel 2009) in the literature. Scholars from India identified ensuing occupations by autochthonous food-producing communities (called Anarta from traditional name of North Gujarat) dating to the mid-4th millennium BC with a distinctive pottery assemblage (Ajithprasad 2002;Ajithprasad and Sonawane 2011;Patel 2009;Possehl 1992;Sonawane and Ajithprasad 1994). During the mid-3rd millennium BC a series of walled urban settlements with characteristic Harappan material culture from the Indus Civilization appear along trade and travel corridors throughout Gujarat (Chase et al. 2014). ...
... Beyond major settlements, such as the villages and cities of the Indus/Harappan Civilization, most archaeological evidence suggests that the occupation of the minor settlements was seasonal. People would have taken advantage of the monsoon rains and the water stored in the interdune areas, and of the rich grasslands located in saline or alluvial wastelands (Ajithprasad and Sonawane 2011;Bhan 2011;Sonawane 2000). At the regional scale, the major concentration of mid-Holocene settlements is in the dune/interdune fields located between the 8m and 40m a.s.l. ...
... During the height of the Indus Civilization, Gujarat was an integral region of South Asia's first urban society (Ajithprasad et al. 2011;Kenoyer 1991a;Sonawane 2005). Geographically distinct from the alluvial plains of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra river systems, the developmental trajectory, material culture, and settlement patterns of Gujarat are considerably different than those known from other Indus regions. ...
... Keywords: Indus Civilization, Kinship, Family, Gujarat, Faunal Analysis. (Rao 1979), Surkotada (Joshi 1990), Bagasra (Sonawane et al. 2003), Shikarpur (Bhan et al. 2008(Bhan et al. , 2009, and Kanmer (Kharakwal et al. 2012) located along trade and travel corridors in Kachchh and Saurashtra (Ajithprasad et al. 2011;Sonawane 2011). The presence of a wide range of classically Harappan-style ceramics, ornaments, and administrative technologies at these sites demonstrates that their residents used material culture as known from the other Indus cities. ...
... Based on these data, many of the 'Late Harappan' settlements in Gujarat appear to have been contemporary with the Indus cities and the other walled Indus settlements in Gujarat. Possehl influentially called these sites 'Sorath Harappan' to distinguish them from the walled settlements described above, to which he applied the term 'Sindhi Harappan' (Possehl 1992a;Possehl et al. 1990), the definition and precise meaning of which continue to be discussed in light of the considerable empirical record generated by ongoing fieldwork in the region (Ajithprasad et al. 2011;Bhan 1992;Sonawane et al. 1994). Regardless of the terminology employed, it is now clear that a relatively few massively walled settlements where Harappan material culture was produced and used were situated within a landscape of much more numerous rural villages. ...
... Localized outcrops of Deccan Trap along the margin of the Arravalis, however, may result in lower values in some areas. At various times throughout the Pleistocene, mainland Gujarat was within the active dune field of the Thar desert (Juyal et al., 2003;Singhvi and Kar, 2004) with most Holocene archaeological sites in North Gujarat situated upon relict dunes (Ajithprasad and Sonawane, 2011;Balbo et al., 2013;Bhan, 2004;Hegde and Sonawane, 1986). These aeolian sediments are sourced from the Aravalli as well as the Himalaya-derived alluvium of the Indus River system, both of which are expected to have relatively high 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values as noted above. ...
The analysis of strontium isotopes in archaeologically preserved biological tissues is most productive when these can be compared to naturally occurring variation in strontium isotope ratios across the physical landscape. Such work is in its infancy in South Asia. Here, we report on the first attempt to monitor ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr variation across the Indian state of Gujarat using herbivore dung. As it incorporates plant material from throughout an individual animal's grazing range, herbivore dung averages local isotopic variation in palatable vegetation and is therefore an ideal material for use in studies involving domestic livestock. In our analysis of 125 dung samples from 38 sampling locations across the study area, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values and geographic variation are commensurate with expectations based on regional geology. The values that we report are significantly different from those reported for both ecosystem elements and archaeological humans and livestock that have been published for other regions of the Indus Civilization (2600–1900 BC). No individual humans or livestock in these studies appear to have their origins in Gujarat. The present study further allows for more detailed interpretations of our previously published study of strontium isotope ratios in faunal remains from the walled Indus manufacturing center of Bagasra in Gujarat (Chase et al., 2014b). Specifically, it is now clear that while most livestock show very little movement within the period of enamel formation, their places of origin were scattered throughout central Saurashtra, adjacent to the site, suggesting that a portion of the livestock consumed at Bagasra were initially raised in the many small unexcavated villages in the area. There is little evidence for the procurement of livestock from further afield within the region and none for livestock originating outside the region. These results demonstrate that monitoring geographic ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr variation using herbivore dung has the potential to significantly advance archaeological interpretation of livestock mobility in the past and is applicable anywhere that modern livestock graze on natural vegetation.
