Archaeological sites along the Gujarat coast: Proxies to decipher the past shoreline
Abstract
During the late Holocene, coastal configuration has undergone continuous changes due to various reasons like sea level fluctuations and shoreline shift. Several reasons are attributed like global warming causing polar ice melting, change in sedimentological regime in near shore region resulting in emergence of submergence of coast and neotectonic activity altering the elevation. Archaeological sites, when they elucidate marine connection and are presently away from shore, provide an unambiguous evidence of such phenomena. Our investigations at Bet Dwarka suggests, at least two historical period sites get submerged during high tides, indicating shoreline shift in last 2000 yrs. Similarly, the submergence of a temple complex at Pindara on northwestern Saurashtra coast presents a classical case of shoreline shift in recent past. The paper discusses the archaeological evidences to decipher the past shoreline of the Saurashtra region
Collections
- Scholarly literature [8950]