Video: 2,800-Year-Old Settlement Found In Vadnagar, PM Modi's Hometown

A recent excavation in Vadnagar, Prime Minister Modi's hometown, unearthed evidence of unbroken cultural continuity spanning centuries. This challenges the long-held belief of a "Dark Age" following the Harappan civilization's collapse, suggesting a more nuanced picture of the region's history.

Led by experts from IIT Kharagpur, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and Deccan College, the study has found evidence of a human settlement that is as old as 800 BCE (before the Christian Era) at Vadnagar in Gujarat.

In a statement released by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, the results of a comprehensive study on deep archaeological excavation in Vadnagar shed light on the intricate dynamics of the region.

The study suggests a correlation between the rise and fall of various kingdoms over a 3,000-year period and recurrent invasions by Central Asian warriors. The driving force behind these historical events, according to the study, appears to be significant changes in climate, such as fluctuations in rainfall or periods of drought.

The findings have just been published in a paper titled "Climate, human settlement, and migration in South Asia from early historic to medieval period: Evidence from new archaeological excavation at Vadnagar, Western India" in the prestigious Elsevier journal 'Quaternary Science Reviews'.

While the excavation was led by ASI, the study was funded by the Directorate of Archaeology & Museums, Government of Gujarat, which is entrusted with building India's first experiential digital museum (experiential means the process of learning through experience) at Vadnagar.

Incidentally, Vadnagar is also the native village of Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India.

Vadnagar has been a multi-cultural and multi-religious (Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and Islamic) settlement.

"Excavation in its several deep trenches revealed the presence of seven cultural stages (periods), namely, Mauryan, Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian or Shaka-Kshatrapas, Hindu-Solankis, Sultanate-Mughal (Islamic), and Gaekwad-British colonial rule, and the city is continuing even today. One of the oldest Buddhist monasteries has been discovered during our excavation.We found characteristic archaeological artefacts, potteries, copper, gold, silver, and iron objects, and intricately designed bangles. We also found coin moulds of Greek king Appollodatus during the Indo-Greek rule at Vadnagar," said ASI archaeologist Abhijit Ambekar, co-author of the paper who led the excavation in 2016.

(With inputs from PTI)



from NDTV News- Topstories https://ift.tt/M42Rs01
https://ift.tt/8b0Exuj

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UK Man Who Couldn't Read Or Write Until Age 18 Becomes Cambridge Professor

Jason Arday was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and global development delay in his early years. He was unable to speak until he was 11 years old and could not read or write until he was 18. Now at the age of 37, he is about to become the youngest black person ever appointed to a professorship at the University of Cambridge, BBC reported. Eight years ago, Mr Arday was told that he would likely need to stay in an assisted living facility. The man refused to make that a reality. He used to write his lifelong goals on his mother's bedroom wall. He wrote that he wants to "work at Oxford or Cambridge." Mr Arday was born and raised in Clapham, southwest London. "As optimistic as I am, there's just no way I could have thought that would have happened. If I was a betting person, the odds on it were so long. It's just mad," he told The Times of UK . He admitted that he had "no idea" what he was doing when he first began writing academic paper
Read more