Pastoral land-use of the Indus Civilization in Gujarat: faunal analyses and biogenic isotopes at Bagasra (original) (raw)
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During the Mature period (2600–1900 BCE) of the Indus Civilization, Gujarat was occupied by two types of settlements, the settlements with predominantly Classical Harappan traits and the settlements with predominantly Sorath traits. Most reconstructions of the data conclude that the settlements with Classical Harappan traits in Gujarat were engaged in the production and trade of non-perishable Harappan-style goods, while the settlements with Sorath traits focused on agro-pastoralism. To date, no major attempt has been made to understand the nature of the agro-pastoralism practiced in these Sorath settlements. This pilot study based on the oxygen and carbon isotope data from cattle/buffalo, sheep, and sheep/goat teeth from the Sorath settlement of Kotada Bhadli (2400–2000 BCE) suggests that this settlement was indeed engaged in specialized seasonal herding of the domesticated animals. Comparing these data with published data on cattle/buffalo, sheep and goat from the nearby Harappan settlement of Bagasra indicates that a distinct form of sedentary animal hus-bandry was practiced at the site of Kotada Bhadli, the nature of which is considerably different from that practiced at the permanent settlement of Bagasra. At Kotada Bhadli both wild flora and agricultural waste were utilized as fodder, depending on their seasonal availability. Such seasonal availability, and the diversification of fodder selection may suggest a regional adaptation to the local climate by the agro-pastoralists during the Late phase of the Mature period (2300–1900 BCE) of the Indus Civilization. The strontium isotopes from the tooth enamel suggest the domesticates consumed at Kotada Bhadli were most likely raised locally, with a grazing catchment not extending far from the settlement. The results also suggest that at least in Gujarat during the Mature period of the Indus Civilization, carbon isotope values along with tooth morphology might be used to distinguish between sheep and goats, due to human practices involving the deliberate use of millets as fodder for sheep but much less so for goats.
Archaeological Research in Asia, 2020
The way that people manage their livestock tells us about their interactions with the landscape, particularly the nature of adaptation to specific environments, social organisation, resilience and long-term farming sustainability. Globally, there is considerable variation in how these practices are manifested, due to differences in water availability, levels of environmental diversity and aridity, and also the nature of cultural choices. South Asia's Indus Civilisation (c.3000-1500 BCE) provides an important opportunity for investigating how populations managed their animals, because the region shows considerable diversity in rainfall distribution, seasonality and intensity, which results in marked environmental variability that is susceptible to change over time. The latter is particularly significant when it comes to consideration of the impact of the 4.2 ka BP event and its relation to the deurbanisation of the Indus Civilisation. This paper presents carbon isotope data from animal teeth from nine archaeological sites distributed across northwest India that are suitable for exploring how diverse practices were, and how animal management strategies changed through time. These data show clear differentiation in feeding practices between species, with cattle and water buffalo consuming very high proportions of C 4 plants, while sheep and goat ate varying quantities of C 3 and C 4 plants. This pattern is generally consistent across sites and throughout different periods, suggesting that the strategy was adapted to a range of environmental conditions and settlements of different sizes. We suggest that humans controlled cow and water buffalo diets, and they were likely provided with fodder. In contrast, sheep and goats had a less controlled diet, and were presumably more likely to roam the landscape. These animal management strategies must have involved some separation of tasks, although it remains unclear if this was on a household, settlement or population level.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2018
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 87 Sr/ 86 Sr 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, 87 Sr/ 86 Sr 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 (2600e1900 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 87 Sr/ 86 Sr 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.
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2020
The Indus Civilization (2600–1900 BCE), South Asia’s first urban society, underwent a momentous social transformation towards the end of the third millennium BC, that culminated in urban decline, cessation of writing, and the dissolution of interregional connectivity. These changes roughly coincide with the 4.2 ka BP climate event, a period of global climate fluctuation manifest in northwestern South Asia as a decline in summer monsoon precipitation. The regions encompassed by the Indus Civilization, however, were ecologically and socially diverse such that both local environmental effects of these climatic fluctuations and human responses to them are expected to vary considerably from region to region. In Gujarat, increased aridity has been hypothe- sized to have led to increased pastoral mobility. Here we evaluate this hypothesis using faunal analyses and isotopic data in faunal tooth enamel that allow us to directly monitor livestock management, diet, and mobility at a series of three archaeological sites whose occupational sequences span this period of social and climatic change. We find no evidence for significant changes in pastoral land-use practices through time in this sequence, findings that we interpret as indicating considerable resilience on the part of local pastoral producers.
On the pastoral economies of Harappan Gujarat: faunal analyses at Shikarpur in context
Heritage, 2015
The faunal remains from Shikarpur, an important settlement of the Indus Civilization (2600( -1900 in Gujarat, are examined in order to explore patterns of consumption and the organization of livestock production. Overall, there is very little variation in either consumption or production patterns through the Integration Era occupation of the site suggesting that pastoral economies that supplied the residents with livestock were resilient in the face of social and possibly climatic changes that characterized this period. Cattle and buffalo were generally kept for secondary products prior to consumption at advanced age while goats and sheep were kept primarily for meat and consumed at younger ages. Throughout its occupation, the residents of Shikarpur generally consumed more cattle and buffalo than did their neighbors at Bagasra. Within the site, the residents of the walled enclosure consumed a more varied diet than their neighbors outside the walls, a pattern also observed at Bagasra.
Cattle and People
In South Asia, among the excavated faunal assemblages recovered from numerous sites associated with the Indus Valley civilization, the skeletal elements of domestic cattle (Bos indicus), also referred to as zebu or humped cattle, are most common. While some evidence for the earliest use of domestic cattle is traced to the Aceramic Neolithic layers at Meh- rgarh in Baluchistan (7,000–5,500 BC), there is limited evidence for it in the Pre-Harappan culture at sites attributed to the Indus Valley civilization. Hence the preliminary cattle evidence from Bhirrana—a Harappan settlement in northern India with Pre-Harappan layers—is significant. Cattle remains are common at this site throughout its occupation, includ- ing from the earliest Hakra Ware/Pre-Harappan phase which has provided a mean Carbon-14 date of 8.35 ± 0.14 ka BP (8,597–8,171 years BP/7,570–7,180 cal BC) broadly contemporary with the earliest Aceramic Neolithic phase at Mehr- garh. The identification of domestic cattle in th...
Animal-based subsistence in the Ganga Valley
Due to a number of faunal studies done in last few decades the evidence of animal-based economy in the Ganga Valley is growing. The faunal evidence begins with the Mesolithic phase and is available up to the Early Historic period through the Neolithic-Chalcolithic period. The information about fauna at several sites in the Ganga Valley is now available. These include Mahadaha, Damdama, Sarai Nahra Rai, Senuwar, Malhar, Narhan, Khairadih, Tokwa, Raja Nal-ka-tila, Lahuradewa, Jhusi and Kopia. The archaeo-faunal material of some of these sites is now being examined in relation to taphonomic processes and intra-site patterns of animal usage. Yet one of the key issue of origin of domestic animals in South Asia remains to be resolved due to various methodological constraints such as far less secured chronology and inadequacy of full faunal reports. In addition to this the nature of evidence of animal-based subsistence in the Ganga Valley during the Neolithic-Chalcolithic period and subsequent Early Historic period is not sufficient to trace the history of domestic animals such as the cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, horse and the ass. This article aims to provide discussion of the limitations of the data, methodological issues involved in faunal analysis and interpretation, and an assessment of the nature of faunal evidence related to the economically important domestic species found in the Ganga Valley.
Emergences of animal husbandry in South West Asia: an insight of Neolithic social structures
ethneo, 2009
Conditioned by the advent of sedentism, the Neolithic Revolution (ca 10000-6000 BC) is economic in nature, with the domestication of plants and then animals. The social content of the latter event is analyzed here for its ideological implications. First, with the help of archaeozoological theory, a 3-part evolutionary framework is proposed: intensive interaction with the wild fauna (preliminary phase), loose penning (proto-domestication) and intensive production with morphological modification (complete domestication). The data from the three identified regions of independent emergence of animal husbandry (Upper Tigris, Middle Euphrates and Zagros) show the central role played by social relations in the process. The territories of diffusion are, on the contrary, suggesting a conflict between the newly adopted mode of production and the still egalitarian ideology.
ANIMAL-BASED SUBSISTENCE OF THE HARAPPAN CULTURE IN GUJARAT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO KANMER
South Asian Archaeology Series 5, 2021
The site of Kanmer, a Harappan site, located in Rapar taluka of Kachchh district of Gujarat, India was subjected to excavation during 2005-2009 for four consecutive seasons jointly by the Institutes of Rajasthan Vidyapeeth, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India; Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India and Research Institute of Humanity and Nature (RIHN), Kyoto, Japan. The excavations at the site revealed various occupational phases of the Harappan period, in addition to yielding a large number of skeletal elements of animals. An archaeozoological project at Kanmer was developed with its primary purpose to document the inhabitants’ utilisation of domestic and wild taxa, to examine variability and change in that utilisation, and to look at the nature of the animal-based subsistence strategies at this site and beyond. This research culminated into a Ph.D. dissertation, which the author successfully defended at Deccan College, Post Graduate and Research Institute (Deemed to be University), Pune, India in March 2012. Now, the same has been presented here in the form of this book to make this research accessible to a wider audience.