Land-Use and Social Networking of the Indus Civilization Explored with Stable Isotopes in Faunal Remains

Summary

The region of Gujarat was the southernmost extension of the Indus Civilization (2600-1900 B.C.), South Asia’s first experiment with urban society. In this region, distinctively Indus material culture was made and used at a series of small, monumentally walled manufacturing and trading centers situated along coastal trade and travel corridors that have often been interpreted as colonies established to facilitate the exploitation of the region’s rich natural resources. With the decline of Indus urbanism, these centers were largely abandoned, and settlement in the region came to be reorganized around inland towns. Here, we present stable isotopic data from faunal remains at a series of settlements spanning this period of momentous social change. Providing rich information on continuity and change land-use and social networking strategies through time, our findings lead to a powerful new perspective on the socioenvironmental dynamics of the Indus Civilization in this important region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Applications of Isotope Research in Zooarchaeology

Keywords

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