Fresh excavations at Lothal point to thriving trade activity in Harappan era
Ahmedabad, Mar 2: Fresh excavations at the Harappan site of Lothal, led by the Archaeological Survey of India, have yielded new evidence indicating that the ancient settlement functioned as a major commercial and manufacturing hub of the Indus Valley Civilization, officials said.
Greater Kashmir has earlier reported that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has resumed excavation work at the site after almost five and a half decades, with experts from ASI aggressively conducting further exploration work at the site, which is located at a distance of 80 kilometres from Ahmedabad.
Dr Shubham Majumdar, Superintendent Archaeologist of the ASI Vadodra Circle, is leading a team carrying out the earth excavation work at the site.
Sharing details with the Greater Kashmir team that visited the site as a part of a tour organised by PIB Jammu, Dr Shubham said that the historians and archaeologists are of the strong opinion that this place was a commercial hub of Harappan civilization and large-scale trade activities were going on from this place.
"We have a dockyard here which clearly indicates that trade through boats and other water transportation means was conducted from here," he stated.
Majmudar also stated that not only this dockyard but a number of structures found during excavation work decades ago, as well as during work presently going on, establish that large-scale manufacturing activities were also being conducted at this place only.
"We have found some structures with burner-like resemblances, by which we are of the view that these fire burners were used to manufacture something like clay utensils or some equipment," he stated.
Dr Shubham Majumdar, who heads the ASI team at the Lothal site, further informed that some metallic pieces, including traces of gold and copper, have been recovered from the site, which further indicates that things with a metallic nature were also being manufactured at this site.
"We have found two types of bricks here. One is normal clay bricks, and the other is fire-burnt ones," he informed, further adding that large-scale excavation work through 36 newly established trenches is going on and the teams are hopeful for the recovery of more items that will deepen the historical research of Harappa civilization.
