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Badland Badshah
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Crash Landing
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ARCHAEOLOGY: CAMBAY FINDS

Earthquake Responsible For Decline

According to a study conducted by the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa, thousands of years ago the sea level was 6 m higher than at present. Archaeological studies of the Gujarat coast suggest that places like Lothal were port cities as the ocean extended till there. Then how come the structures now identified by NIOT were submerged? According to a note prepared by the organisation, the most probable answer is earthquakes. Research conducted by Centre for Earth Science Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, confirm that earthquakes have brought down land level by several metres. But S.R. Rao, former deputy director general of ASI and scientist emeritus with NIO, is sceptical: "The question whether the sea rose by 40 m is a ticklish one."

Buoyed by the present findings, NIOT is speeding up its project to undertake marine archaeology exploration at Poompuhar off the Tamil Nadu coast, which "promises many a surprise". The NIOT team's findings were appreciated by Department of Ocean Development (DOD) Secretary Harsh Gupta, who is a geophysicist. Gupta contacted Union HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi who was equally excited at the preliminary evidence. "It could unearth a Harappan or pre-Harappan civilisation," he says. However, experts advise caution. Says Rao, "Unless there is definite datable object we cannot say it is as old as the Harappan civilisation."

Finding datable objects poses a challenge for NIOT. It has vast expertise in marine and under-sea data collection and analyses, but it will have to tide over not just nature's fury, but also the handicap of poor equipment. For one, its two vessels-Sagar Purvi and Sagar Paschimi-are not good enough to carry and manoeuvre heavy equipment like a shallow-bed crawler or a remote-operated vehicle (ROV). Moreover, these vessels do not have a dynamic positioning system that enables stability while handling crawlers and other heavy equipment. The currents in the Gulf of Cambay are as strong as eight knots (roughly 5 m per second), which the Sagar Paschimi has to overcome with its two 160-HP engines. "There are times," says G. Janakiraman, in charge of the NIOT vessels, "when even at full throttle, the vessel is pushed back by the current. We have to face the current directly or risk being toppled." Kathiroli recounts the many times their vessel was grounded as the depth of the sea suddenly decreased by more than 10 m. "Suddenly we find ourselves hitting the bottom and stuck. We pray and wait for a tide strong enough to buoy us up."

Carrying the shallow-bed crawler that weighs 10 tonnes will need more powerful engine and at least 50 sq m of free deck space. "We need a bigger sea-going vessel with ample space and power," says Ravindran. The cost factor is another impediment. NIOT needs at least Rs 1 crore to keep a bigger ship, like DOD's Sagar Kanya, in the Gulf of Cambay for 20 days.

The investment might be worth it. The Cambay find needs a lot more evidence to give it shape. Says Rao, author of the Lost City of Dwarka: "Whether they are manmade objects can only be ascertained if a diver goes and examines it. Also, it is important to get datable pottery. We established Dwarka to date back to 1600 b.c. through thermoluminescence. If it is Harappan, there should be plenty of pottery."

Sending divers 40 m deep to collect samples is a trying proposition. The exploration of Dwarka in 1981 looks like child's play compared to this operations. Divers could spend a long time underwater collecting material from the Dwarka site, which is just 5 m deep. In the Gulf of Cambay, the tidal variations are up to 11 m, which means that a four-storey building will get submerged twice a day. Even expert divers from the Indian Navy cannot stay underwater for more than 20 minutes in the interregnum between the tides. Hence, the need for ROVs and sea-bed crawlers.

ROVs can travel under sea to survey and collect visual images, which will be a great improvement on the acoustic images. At present, NIOT has a battery-operated ROV with a 5-HP engine, which is grossly inadequate to deal with the 8-knot currents. A 10-15 HP ROV can do the job. Also, the shallow-bed crawler can videograph and pump out sediment samples from the ocean bed to the vessel. In between the tides, divers can take a quick plunge to retrieve any material which could be carbon-dated to ascertain the age.

Once established, it would be the first such archaeological excavation in the Gulf of Cambay, where world-class navigators fear to tread. And perhaps the best catch ever for any marine archaeologist.

-With Stephen David in Bangalore

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