Was the ‘dockyard’ at Lothal a ‘dockyard’ or not? An in-depth look at this question in a true multi-dimensional manner is long overdue. This study seeks to revisit the dockyard hypothesis by examining Lothal from a landscape perspective, using advanced techniques such as multi-sensor remote sensing, cloud computing, and digital elevation models. The key goal is to understand the paleolandscape (ancient landscape) and reconstruct the hydrographic network surrounding Lothal, including its connection to the historic Sabarmati River.
The results strongly support the ‘dockyard’ hypothesis to describe the brick-lined basin over 200 metres long and almost 40 metres wide discovered at Lothal, together with the companion paper A Bronze Age Inland Water Network and Its Role in the Maritime Trade Network of the Harappan (Indus) Civilization. However, the real importance of this article is much more wide-ranging. It points to an extraordinary level of sophistication prevalent in ancient Indus times when it came to moving goods over fresh and salt water, a living network of sinewy waterways that would have moved people as well across a large portion of the subcontinent as if it was no big deal for centuries.
The three authors write, “Water transport was considered a faster and cheaper mode of transportation during the pre-industrialised era for carrying goods from faraway resource areas to craft production centres to regional or inter- regional markets (Hnaihen, 2020). Thus, waterways seem to have played a great role in determining the location of the trade centres. Lothal appears to have participated in interregional and intercultural trade through the maritime water network during the Harappan period,” (p. 3). Describing the Lothal ‘dockyard,’ as such by the early excavator S.R. Rao was based on a variety of circumstantial evidence like an inlet into the area, a possible adjacent cargo-handling platform, even the presence of sea shells that suggested a much closer ocean presence in ancient times. A number of commentators raised questions about this interpretation however (for context, see Shereen Ratnagar’s article The Story of an Ancient Dock: Lothal in the History of the Indian Ocean). One of the key issues this paper responds to amongst dockyard doubters is the apparent lack of a “hinterland” to supply the dockyard in the first place, invisible in the area today around Lothal.
The authors take on this issue head on with judicious use of a wide variety of satellite imagery and maps in order to identify geographic features like paleo-channels where water once flowed. Four or five thousand years can lead to a lot of change in a potential delta region, all the more so when the ocean levels are also likely to have been many metres higher than they are now. “The reconstruction of the palaeolandscape, particularly the complex hydrographic network including rivers and creeks, of this historically important region has the potential to contribute to new insights into existing archaeological interpretations and guide us about the past human adaptation to the natural dynamics,” (p. 4). Infrared imaging can detect moisture levels and extant vegetation that reveal earlier water flows. Verification can require many sources of data, including current seasonal flows following monsoon seasons to, as it were, illumine earlier water tracts. Seven different kinds of maps, some reaching back over a century were combined to reconstruct the probable terrain and waterflow map when Lothal was at its height, Sherlock Holmes as geographer.
“The remote sensing analysis [Image 2, above] revealed a dense network of palaeochannels and several palaeo-meander belts in the interfluve area downstream of Ahmedabad City. The analysis also suggested the presence of palaeo-creeks reaching 20–30 km inland. Over 140 segments of palaeochannels with a combined length of more than 850 km are identified and traced by integrating various sources of data, methods and geospatial platforms discussed in the previous section (Fig. 10). The extensive network of palaeochannels extends over 35 km from the Rodh tributary to the current course of the River Sabarmati, diverging from its main course, with the majority originating just downstream of Ahmedabad city. A conspicuous palaeochannel runs along the Lothal, and another Harappan site, Koth, located about 15 km upstream, also stems from the Sabarmati,” (p. 9).
The reconstruction shows that the river Sabarmati most likely once flowed just to the west of Lothal, connecting it to a wide variety of upstream settlements and resources. The authors also seek to show that Gulf of Khambat once extended a further 15 km inland, connecting through a paleo-estuary to the Sabarmati. Lothal was thus ideally situated at the junction of fresh and sea water pathways, helping us to understand why so much evidence of trade across international waters has also been found there, including the largest cache of (accidentally fired) Indus sealings. In other words, the authors convincingly show why the ‘dockyard’ at Lothal would have been a dockyard – and the paleochannels they identify are “perfectly aligned” (p. 16) with such flows from north to south. The findings challenge earlier criticisms of the dockyard theory, particularly the argument that Lothal was too far from any major river system to support a dock and show that Lothal was located on a key riverine route connecting it to the interior regions of Gujarat and to the Gulf of Khambhat. Additionally, the detection of ancient estuarine features and the connection to the Sabarmati supports the idea that Lothal’s basin was designed for maritime trade rather than irrigation.
The study also addresses the geomorphological and tectonic changes that have affected the region over the past several thousand years. The shifting courses of rivers and changes in sea level likely played a role in the eventual decline of Lothal as a port.
The authors justifiably conclude that “the present study clearly indicates the extraordinary ingenuity of the Harappans to situate a settlement on land suitably located on a river bank for furthering their trade trans- actions and venturing into the northeastern and southern regions of Gujarat, most likely via both riverine and sea transport. In addition to the riverine route and the sea route through GoK, the possibility of a shallow-water route through the Nal Sarovar Corridor is discussed in Gupta and Prabhakar (2024), which makes Lothal a strategic location for local, regional and intercultural economic exchanges,” (p. 17). One comes away largely convinced by a fine piece of research and analysis that properly straddles the macro and micro picture.
A companion paper by two of the authors, A Bronze Age Inland Water Network and Its Role in the Maritime Trade Network of the Harappan (Indus) Civilization looks at the larger area in similar terms with a focus on the Nal corridor.
Note: both articles are behind a paywall.
Images:
Fig. 1. Study area map; A) Historical context of the Harappan Site Lothal
Fig. 2 Map showing various palaeo-features identified using various remote sensing data products, distribution of Harappan and Sorath Harappan sites and modern-day natural features.