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Geoarchaeological insights into the location of Indus settlements on the plains of northwest India

Neogi, Sayantani; French, Charles A.I.; Durcan, Julie A.; Singh, Ravindra N.; Petrie, Cameron A.

Geoarchaeological insights into the location of Indus settlements on the plains of northwest India Thumbnail


Authors

Charles A.I. French

Julie A. Durcan

Ravindra N. Singh

Cameron A. Petrie



Abstract

This article presents a geomorphological and micromorphological study of the locational context of four Indus civilisation archaeological sites—Alamgirpur, Masudpur I and VII, and Burj—all situated on the Sutlej-Yamuna interfluve in northwest India. The analysis indicates a strong correlation between settlement foundation and particular landscape positions on an extensive alluvial floodplain. Each of the analysed sites was located on sandy levees and/or riverbank deposits associated with former channels. These landscape positions would have situated settlements above the level of seasonal floodwater resulting from the Indian summer monsoon. In addition, the sandy soils on the margins of these elevated landscape positions would have been seasonally replenished with water, silt, clay, and fine organic matter, considerably enhancing their capacity for water retention and fertility and making them particularly suitable for agriculture. These former landscapes are obscured by recent modification and extensive agricultural practices. These geoarchaeological evaluations indicate that there is a hidden landscape context for each Indus settlement. This specific type of interaction between humans and their local context is an important aspect of Indus cultural adaptations to diverse, variable, and changing environments.

Citation

Neogi, S., French, C. A., Durcan, J. A., Singh, R. N., & Petrie, C. A. (2020). Geoarchaeological insights into the location of Indus settlements on the plains of northwest India. Quaternary Research, 94, 137-155. https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2019.70

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Dec 20, 2019
Publication Date Mar 31, 2020
Deposit Date Apr 8, 2020
Publicly Available Date Apr 8, 2020
Journal Quaternary Research
Print ISSN 0033-5894
Electronic ISSN 1096-0287
Publisher Academic Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 94
Pages 137-155
DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2019.70
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1266584

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2019. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial
re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge
University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.





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