Intensified summer monsoon and the urbanization of Indus Civilization in northwest India
Today the desert margins of northwest India are dry and unable to support large populations, but were densely occupied by the populations of the Indus Civilization during the middle to late Holocene. The hydroclimatic conditions under which Indus urbanization took place, which was marked by a period...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
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2018
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/87590 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45459 |
| _version_ | 1826114835541131264 |
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| author | Dixit, Yama Hodell, David A. Giesche, Alena Tandon, Sampat K. Gázquez, Fernando Saini, Hari S. Skinner, Luke C. Mujtaba, Syed A. I. Pawar, Vikas Singh, Ravindra N. Petrie, Cameron A. |
| author2 | Earth Observatory of Singapore |
| author_facet | Earth Observatory of Singapore Dixit, Yama Hodell, David A. Giesche, Alena Tandon, Sampat K. Gázquez, Fernando Saini, Hari S. Skinner, Luke C. Mujtaba, Syed A. I. Pawar, Vikas Singh, Ravindra N. Petrie, Cameron A. |
| author_sort | Dixit, Yama |
| collection | NTU |
| description | Today the desert margins of northwest India are dry and unable to support large populations, but were densely occupied by the populations of the Indus Civilization during the middle to late Holocene. The hydroclimatic conditions under which Indus urbanization took place, which was marked by a period of expanded settlement into the Thar Desert margins, remains poorly understood. We measured the isotopic values (δ18O and δD) of gypsum hydration water in paleolake Karsandi sediments in northern Rajasthan to infer past changes in lake hydrology, which is sensitive to changing amounts of precipitation and evaporation. Our record reveals that relatively wet conditions prevailed at the northern edge of Rajasthan from ~5.1 ± 0.2 ka BP, during the beginning of the agricultural-based Early Harappan phase of the Indus Civilization. Monsoon rainfall intensified further between 5.0 and 4.4 ka BP, during the period when Indus urban centres developed in the western Thar Desert margin and on the plains of Haryana to its north. Drier conditions set in sometime after 4.4 ka BP, and by ~3.9 ka BP an eastward shift of populations had occurred. Our findings provide evidence that climate change was associated with both the expansion and contraction of Indus urbanism along the desert margin in northwest India. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T03:45:41Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/87590 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T03:45:41Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/875902020-09-26T21:27:25Z Intensified summer monsoon and the urbanization of Indus Civilization in northwest India Dixit, Yama Hodell, David A. Giesche, Alena Tandon, Sampat K. Gázquez, Fernando Saini, Hari S. Skinner, Luke C. Mujtaba, Syed A. I. Pawar, Vikas Singh, Ravindra N. Petrie, Cameron A. Earth Observatory of Singapore Climate Change Indus Urbanism Today the desert margins of northwest India are dry and unable to support large populations, but were densely occupied by the populations of the Indus Civilization during the middle to late Holocene. The hydroclimatic conditions under which Indus urbanization took place, which was marked by a period of expanded settlement into the Thar Desert margins, remains poorly understood. We measured the isotopic values (δ18O and δD) of gypsum hydration water in paleolake Karsandi sediments in northern Rajasthan to infer past changes in lake hydrology, which is sensitive to changing amounts of precipitation and evaporation. Our record reveals that relatively wet conditions prevailed at the northern edge of Rajasthan from ~5.1 ± 0.2 ka BP, during the beginning of the agricultural-based Early Harappan phase of the Indus Civilization. Monsoon rainfall intensified further between 5.0 and 4.4 ka BP, during the period when Indus urban centres developed in the western Thar Desert margin and on the plains of Haryana to its north. Drier conditions set in sometime after 4.4 ka BP, and by ~3.9 ka BP an eastward shift of populations had occurred. Our findings provide evidence that climate change was associated with both the expansion and contraction of Indus urbanism along the desert margin in northwest India. Published version 2018-08-06T04:19:07Z 2019-12-06T16:45:09Z 2018-08-06T04:19:07Z 2019-12-06T16:45:09Z 2018 Journal Article Dixit, Y., Hodell, D. A., Giesche, A., Tandon, S. K., Gázquez, F., Saini, H. S., et al. (2018). Intensified summer monsoon and the urbanization of Indus Civilization in northwest India. Scientific Reports, 8, 4225-. 2045-2322 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/87590 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45459 10.1038/s41598-018-22504-5 en Scientific Reports © 2018 Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Te images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. 8 p. application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Climate Change Indus Urbanism Dixit, Yama Hodell, David A. Giesche, Alena Tandon, Sampat K. Gázquez, Fernando Saini, Hari S. Skinner, Luke C. Mujtaba, Syed A. I. Pawar, Vikas Singh, Ravindra N. Petrie, Cameron A. Intensified summer monsoon and the urbanization of Indus Civilization in northwest India |
| title | Intensified summer monsoon and the urbanization of Indus Civilization in northwest India |
| title_full | Intensified summer monsoon and the urbanization of Indus Civilization in northwest India |
| title_fullStr | Intensified summer monsoon and the urbanization of Indus Civilization in northwest India |
| title_full_unstemmed | Intensified summer monsoon and the urbanization of Indus Civilization in northwest India |
| title_short | Intensified summer monsoon and the urbanization of Indus Civilization in northwest India |
| title_sort | intensified summer monsoon and the urbanization of indus civilization in northwest india |
| topic | Climate Change Indus Urbanism |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/87590 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45459 |
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