Kutch housed hunter-gatherer communities 5,000 years before Harappans arrived: Study

Indian Express

3 days ago

Shell scatters, deposits, middens, stone tools. Researchers have found rare evidence of human settlement in Kutch. As they dug deeper, they found that Kutch was home to prehistoric hunter-gatherer communities way before the Harappan era. A recent study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) has offered new insights into Kutch's cultural evolution.
The study by IITGN researchers, in collaboration with experts from IIT Kanpur (IITK), Inter University Accelerator Centre (IUAC) Delhi, and Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) Ahmedabad, has uncovered archaeological evidence that pushes back the human presence in this region by at least 5,000 years prior to the arrival of Harappans.
These communities inhabited a mangrove-dominated landscape, relied on shell species (both bivalves like oysters and gastropods), and naturally adapted to such environments.
'While British surveyors had previously noted shell accumulations in the area, these were not recognised as shell-midden sites, the heaps of discarded shells from human consumption,' explained Prof V N Prabhakar, an Associate Professor at the Archaeological Science Centre in the department of Earth Sciences at IITGN and lead investigator of the study.
'Our study is the first to identify these sites, confirm their cultural significance, and establish a chronological context,' he added.
These newly identified sites are the first of their kind to be documented in the Kutch region, with a defined cultural and chronological context. According to the researchers, the findings also show similarities with coastal archaeological sites in the Las Bela and Makran regions of Pakistan and the Oman Peninsula, suggesting that early coastal communities across this broader region may have developed comparable strategies for food collection and survival.
'The shell samples collected from Khadir and nearby islands were analysed at PRL Ahmedabad, with support from Prof Ravi Bhushan and J S Ray, and at IUAC, Delhi, with help from Dr Pankaj Kumar,' mentioned Prof Prabhakar.
To determine the age of these sites, the researchers used Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS), a precise method for measuring the radioactive isotope values of Carbon-14 (C-14) from the shell remains, which is absorbed by all living organisms. After death, C-14 begins to decay and is reduced by half every 5,730 years. Measuring the remaining amount in the shell samples allows scientists to estimate how long ago the organism died. As atmospheric C-14 levels have varied over time, the results were calibrated using tree ring data. Trees form one ring per year, and these tree ring sequences can be matched and extended back over thousands of years, allowing scientists to construct an accurate reference timeline of atmospheric C-14.
The team discovered a variety of stone tools used for cutting, scraping, and splitting. Used cores from which the tools were manufactured were also found. 'The presence of these tools and associated raw materials suggests that the communities engaged in the prolific manufacture of implements for daily tasks,' said Dr Shikha Rai, a postdoctoral researcher at IITGN and co-author of the study. The raw materials may have been sourced from Khadir Island, now known for housing the Harappan city of Dholavira.
The study challenges the commonly held view that urbanism in Kutch developed primarily under the influence of the Sindh region. 'Instead of abrupt external influence, what we see here is a gradual, locally rooted process of adaptation and cultural development,' said Prof Prabhakar. 'This accumulated knowledge of local geology, water resources, and navigation may have later helped the Harappans plan their settlements more effectively and engage in long-distance trade.'
The researchers also believe that the shell middens and scatters will be important in palaeoclimate studies. Since climate change unfolds gradually over millennia and cannot be directly observed in the short term, natural materials like shells preserve signals that help reconstruct past environments.
Previous studies at IITGN have already mapped the palaeoclimate of Khadir Island over the past 11,500 years.
Further analysis of the recently discovered shell middens may contribute critical new insights into the climate conditions in which early humans lived.
'Humans in the past adapted to different climatic zones and environmental challenges without the aid of modern technologies,' explained Dr Rai, adding: 'Their ability to observe, respond to, and live within their ecological limits is something worth learning from today, especially in the context of global climate change.'
The team now aims at mapping cultural developments in Gujarat, from prehistoric to historical periods, to build a broader understanding of how human adaptation has evolved.
The findings from this study were presented at the 17th Annual Workshop on South Asian Archaeology (Hartwick College and University of Chicago), the Seminar Series on the Archaeology of the Indo-Iranian Borderlands (Sorbonne University, Paris), and the 50th Annual Conference of the Indian Society for Prehistoric and Quaternary Studies (ISPQS), Raipur — all in 2025.
The research team includes Prof Vikrant Jain of the Earth Sciences Department, IITGN; Prof Javed Malik and Debajyoti Paul of IITK; Pankaj Kumar of IUAC, Delhi and Mahendrasinh Gadhavi of LD College, Ahmedabad.