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ARCHAEOLOGY: CAMBAY FINDS
City Under The Sea
Scientists have stumbled upon
the remains of what looks like another Harappan town possibly submerged
in the Gulf of Cambay due to earthquakes
By Arun Ram
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Sonar rays
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The Gulf of Cambay,
known for its unpredictably turbulent currents
and tidal variations, was particularly unkind to a small group of scientists
doing a marine pollution check on board Sagar Paschimi some 20 km off
the Surat shores in the early months of 2000. The National Institute of
Ocean Technology (NIOT) team could do nothing much but browse through
the multi-disciplinary data and samples it collected while doing the pollution
check before returning to its Chennai headquarters.
And then, they saw it. "Pebbles on an ocean
floor?", wondered NIOT Project Director Dr S. Kathiroli, Is there-or
rather was there-a river under the sea?" NIOT Director Professor
M. Ravindran and consultant S. Badrinarayan wasted no time in joining
Kathiroli to analyse the voluminous data Sagar Paschimi had collected
over the months from the area. After a thorough perusal of the acoustic
images collected by using sound waves, the NIOT team was virtually convinced
that all these months they were sailing over the remains of a Harappa-like
civilisation. If unearthed, it would be the first such archaeological
find in the Gulf of Cambay.
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ACROPOLIS: Acoustic image of buildings spread over 3,869 sq m which
may have been the city hub typical of Harappa
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"It was an accidental discovery," says
Ravindran. "We were doing some pollution check for a private company
and our teams were collecting routine data. And here we are with clinching
evidence of a lost settlement perhaps 6,000 years old." The NIOT
contacted the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which "unofficially"
agreed that it could be a Harappan site buried under the sea owing to
a series of earthquakes.
The confirmation is yet to come, but the findings
are astounding. The acoustic images done by Side Scan Sonar, Sub-bottom
Profiler and Multi-beam Echo Sounder give a clear enough view of a number
of structures which resemble those of the Harappan age. "The Side
Scan Sonar has picked up images of several excellent geometric objects
which have to be man-made," says Kathiroli, who spent sleepless nights
on Sagar Paschimi during inclement weather in the Gulf of Cambay.
 One
of the images shows structures like tanks, some square and 40 m long,
some 41 m by 25 m. There are even steps visible on the side of the structure,
suggesting it was "the great bath", the central feature of Harappan
towns. Other striking pictures are those of a group of constructions in
an area of 97 m by 24 m resembling the Acropolis of the Harappan culture
and a residential settlement spanning an area 73 m by 53 m buried under
sand waves and sand ripples. There is even an image of a 44 m-long structure
resembling a temple with a pond.
The Side Scan Sonar could not have given better
photographs under the turbulent waters where sand currents make imaging
extremely difficult. "The monsoon over, we got back with more equipment
doing sub-bottom profiles of the structures," says Ravindran. "The
results were hair-raising."
The sub-bottom profiler, which penetrates deep
under the seabed to give a cross-section view, confirmed the Acropolis
structure. A similar profile of the "settlement" site showed
structures with well-designed basements. "See," Badrinarayan
points his finger still shaking with excitement, "taller structures
have deeper basements. Those old guys, I should admit, were great engineers."
The Harappan theory is strengthened by the pebbles
which NIOT had stumbled upon. Rounded pebbles suggest that one or many
rivers had run their course through the now-submerged region. That virtually
every ancient civilisation flourished on river banks adds to the validity
of the NIOT find. Moreover, S. Kalyanaraman, in his recent book on the
Saraswati, says the river had flowed into the "sagara in the Gulf
of Khambat (Cambay)".
An artist's impression
of how the ancient city was located. Inset are pictures of sonar images
collected by the NIOT team.
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