Dholavira "EMPOWER IAS"

In news:

• The Harappan city of Dholavira, in present-day Gujarat, has been named the 40th Indian site on UNESCO’s World Heritage list.

_{Dholavira site}

• The IVC acropolis is located on a hillock near present-day Dholavira village in Kutch district, from which it gets its name.
• It was discovered in 1968 by archaeologist Jagat Pati Joshi.
• The site’s excavation between 1990 and 2005 under the supervision of archaeologist Ravindra Singh Bisht uncovered the ancient commercial city.

 

_{Key features}

• It is one of the very few well preserved urban settlements in South Asia dating from the 3rd to mid-2nd millennium BCE.
• It was located in the island of Khadir which was strategic to harness different mineral and raw material sources (copper, shell, agate-carnelian, steatite, lead, banded limestone, among others).
• It facilitated internal as well as external trade to the Magan (modern Oman peninsula) and Mesopotamian regions.
• One finds the origin of the Buddhist Stupas in memorials in Dholavira.

 

_{Its architecture}

• The city demonstrates its multifaceted achievements in terms of urban planning, construction techniques, water management, social governance and development, art, manufacturing, trading, and belief system.
• The property comprises two parts:

1. A walled city: Consists of a fortified Castle with attached fortified Bailey and Ceremonial Ground, and a fortified Middle Town and a Lower Town
2. A cemetery to the west of the city

 

Trade and commercial activities

• Remains of a copper smelter indicate of Harappans, who lived in Dholavira, knew metallurgy.
• It is believed that traders of Dholavira used to source copper ore from present-day Rajasthan and Oman and UAE and export finished products.
• It was also a hub of manufacturing jewellery made of shells and semi-precious stones, like agate and used to export timber.
• Such beads peculiar to the Harappan workmanship have been found in the royal graves of Mesopotamia, indicating Dholavira used to trade with the Mesopotamians.

 

Causes for its decline

• Harappans, who were maritime people, lost a huge market, affecting the local mining, manufacturing, marketing and export businesses once Mesopotamia fell.
• From 2000 BC, Dholavira entered a phase of severe aridity due to climate change and rivers like Saraswati drying up.
• Because of a drought-like situation, people started migrating toward the Ganges valley or towards south Gujarat and further beyond in Maharashtra.
• In those times the Great Rann of Kutch, which surrounds the Khadir island on which Dholavira is located, used to be navigable, but the sea receded gradually and the Rann became a mudflat.

 

Other Harappan sites in Gujarat

• Before Dholavira was excavated, Lothal, in Saragwala village on the bank of Sabarmati in Dholka taluka of Ahmedabad district, was the most prominent site of IVC in Gujarat.
• It was excavated between 1955 and 1960 and was discovered to be an important port city of the ancient civilisation, with structures made of mud bricks.
• From a graveyard in Lothal, 21 human skeletons were found. Foundries for making copperware were also discovered. Ornaments made of semi-precious stones, gold etc. were also found from the site.
• Besides Lothal, Rangpur on the bank of Bhadar river in Surendranagar district was the first Harappan site in the state to be excavated.
• Rojdi in Rajkot district, Prabhas near Veraval in Gir Somnath district, Lakhabaval in Jamnagar, and Deshalpar in Bhuj taluka of Kutch are among other Harappan sites in the state.:

 

World Heritage Site :

• A World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by UNESCO for its special cultural or physical significance. 
• The list of World Heritage Sites is maintained by the international 'World Heritage Programme', administered by the The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee.

 

Criteria for selection in the list of World Heritage sites (Cultural and Natural):

• The site should represent a masterpiece of human creative genius;
• Site exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design;
• The site should bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared;
• The site should be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape that illustrates significant stage(s) in human history.

 

Indus Valley Civilisation:

• The History of India begins with the birth of the Indus Valley Civilization, more precisely known as Harappan Civilization. 
• It flourished around 2,500 BC, in the western part of South Asia, what today is Pakistan and Western India. 
• The Indus Valley was home to the largest of the four ancient urban civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China. 
• The ruins of buildings and other things like household articles, weapons of war, gold and silver ornaments, seals, toys, pottery wares, etc., show that some four to five thousand years ago a highly developed Civilization flourished in this region.
• By 1500 BC, the Harappan culture came to an end. Among various causes ascribed to the decay of Indus Valley Civilization are the recurrent floods and other natural causes like earthquakes, etc.

 

Salient features:

• Highly developed city life: many houses had wells and bathrooms as well as an elaborate underground drainage system. 
• The Indus Civilization had a writing system, however it is not deciphered yet.
• The social conditions of the citizens were comparable to those in Sumeria and superior to the contemporary Babylonians and Egyptians.