The ASI-led study features contributions of experts from IIT-KGP, Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad, Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute and JNU. The findings of the study were recently published in a paper titled ‘Climate, human settlement, and migration in South Asia from Early historic to medieval period: evidence from new archaeological excavation at Vadnagar, Western India’ in the prestigious Elsevier journal ‘Quaternary Science Reviews’.

“The period between collapse of Indus valley civilization at 4,000 years before present (early 2nd millennium BCE) and emergence of Iron Age and cities of Mahajanapadas like Gandhar, Koshal, Avanti (6th-5th century BCE) somewhere between 3,000 to 2,500 years ago is often depicted as the ‘Dark Age’ by archaeologists,” said Prof Anindya Sarkar from IIT-Kharagpur who’s a co-author of the research paper.

According to Sarkar, archaeological records related to the ‘Dark Age’ are rare and the earliest evidence dates back to a rock-inscription of Ashoka created during the Mauryan period (320-185 BCE) at Sudarsana Lake near the Girnar hill in Gujarat.

“Our evidence makes Vadnagar the oldest living city within a single fortification unearthed so far in India. Vadnagar is unique in a sense that such a continuous record of early historic to medieval archaeology with precise chronology has not been discovered elsewhere in India. Some of our recent unpublished radiocarbon dates are suggesting that the settlement could be as old as 1400 BCE contemporary to the very late phase of post-urban Harappan period. If true, then it suggests a cultural continuity in India for the last 5,500 years and the so-called Dark Age may be a myth,” he added.

The researchers said that the early human settlements in Vadnagar have found a mention in the written accounts of travellers like Chinese scholar Hiuen Tsang. “The earliest settlement period in Vadnagar started at least in 800 year BCE i.e. early Iron Age and pre-dates both Buddhism and Jainism. This period continues into the Mauryan rule and ends with its fall around 150 BCE. After the downfall of the Gupta Empire, large scale deurbanisation, drying up of water bodies, famines and population contraction across India occurred. Travelogues of Hiuen Tsang (7th century CE) who visited Vadnagar, and Al Biruni refer to the collapse of almost all major towns with only few continuing into the early Chalukya rule,” said Sarkar.

Talking about the excavation, ASI archaeologist Dr Abhijit Ambekar, who co-authored the research paper and who led the project since 2016, said during the excavation the team found archaeological artefacts, pottery, copper, gold, silver and iron objects and intricately designed bangles.

Describing Vadnagar as a “multicultural and multireligious” settlement, Ambekar said, “The excavation revealed the presence of seven cultural stages – Mauryan, Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian or Shaka-Kshatrapas (aka ‘Satraps’, descendants of provincial governors of ancient Achaemenid Empires), Hindu-Solankis, Sultanate-Mughal (Islamic) and Gaekwad-British colonial rule… One of the oldest Buddhist monasteries has been discovered during our excavation…”