New study proves Indus Valley civilisation did not thrive on a river bank as believed earlier

The popular notion that great civilisations develop around great rivers has been existing for a long time. However, new findings regarding the emergence of Indus valley civilisation could well change this notion at least for the South Asia based ancient civilisation.

New findings indicate that the many urban centres of Indus valley civilisation emerged not on the vicinity of river banks, but years after the drying up of rivers. According to the report on science blog Phys, the new study was led by researchers from Imperial College London and the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.

It was popularly believed that the civilisation thrived on the banks of Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra river, also believed to be as River Saraswati. And according to this theory, the civilisation declined once the Ghaggar-Hakra dried up.

However, when the team studied the layers of sediments built beneath the now dried up river they made a fascinating discovery. The dating of the mineral grains that were extracted from the sediments at the DTU-Aarhus Riso laboratory in Denmark revealed that the civilisation emerged after the river become extinct.

The study revealed that the river that originally flowed through the region was indeed River Sutlej that later changed its course to the north around 8000 years ago, over 3000 years before the Indus valley civilisation started to emerge.

The settlements, however, were able to access water as the depression left by the river left a topographic low that was able to capture monsoon water and operate as a seasonal river.

"We now know that, given the right conditions, valleys that have lost their rivers can still serve as a water source. The civilisation would also not have been threatened by the risk of devastating floods that living next to a big river brings," Professor Rajiv Sinha, of Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, was quoted saying in the report.

The findings, though at present limited only to the Indus valley civilisation, could well be an eyeopener that can prove many pre-conceived notions regarding civilisations to be wrong. Many historic civilisations could now come under the scrutiny regarding the role that great rivers and other natural sources played in their development.