India’s oldest living city found in Vadnagar: multi-institution study

Last Updated16/01/2024

A joint study by five prominent institutions has found evidence of a cultural continuity in Vadnagar in present-day Gujarat even after the collapse of the Harappan civilisation, thus making it likely that the “Dark Age” was a myth.

The study also indicates that the rise and fall of different kingdoms during the 3,000-year period and recurrent invasions of India by central Asian warriors were driven by severe changes in climate like rainfall or droughts.
Vadnagar was a multicultural and multireligious (Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Islamic) settlement.
The period between the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation and the emergence of the Iron Age and cities such as Gandhar, Koshal, and Avanti is often depicted as a Dark Age by archaeologists.
evidence makes Vadnagar the oldest living city within a single fortification unearthed so far in India.
Some of our recent unpublished radiocarbon dates suggest that the settlement could be as old as 1400 BCE contemporary to the very late phase of post-urban Harappan period.

The history of India begins with the birth of the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC), also known as Harappan Civilization.
It flourished around 2,500 BC, in the western part of South Asia, in contemporary Pakistan and Western India.
The Indus Valley was home to the largest of the four ancient urban civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China.
In the 1920s, the Archaeological Department of India carried out excavations in the Indus valley wherein the ruins of the two old cities, viz. Mohenjodaro and Harappa were unearthed.
In 1924, John Marshall, Director-General of the ASI, announced the discovery of a new civilisation in the Indus valley to the world.