National
Oldest settlement discovered off Gujarat coast?
By Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, JAN. 16. The Union Minister for Science and Technology, Murli Manohar Joshi, today announced the discovery of a ``human settlement'' off the Gujarat coast, which could be older than any settlement found anywhere in the world.
Excavations in the Gulf of Cambay had thrown up artefacts indicating human activity in the region around 7,500 BC, Dr. Joshi said. This pointed to a settlement older than the Sumerian (3,500 BC), the Egyptian (3,000 BC) and the Harappan civilisations (2,500 BC).
Addressing a press conference, the Minister said the excavations had also shown that there could have been a river flowing in the area from east to west. Scientists had so far traced the course of the paleo-river to a length of 9 km. But it could have been longer.
The evidence for the antiquity of this site came from a piece of wood which had been cut through ``human intervention.'' Carbon dating of the piece by two institutions - the National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, and the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaebotany, Lucknow, showed that it was 9,544 years old. In other words, it dated back to circa 7,500 BC.
Describing the excavation as an ``exciting breakthrough,'' the former Joint Director and head of the Department of Archaeology, Deccan College, Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, S. N. Rajguru, said the findings also indicated that the entire landscape between Bhavnagar and Hazira near Surat were probably connected during that period. ``It seemed to be a transition phase between the Stone Age and the urbanised culture of Harappa.''
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