Riscrivere la Storia con l'acqua.

Scrivo questo post, perché esso offre parecchi spunti per pensare. 

Non solo in Italia accadono certe strane cose.  Anche all'estero curiosi 'colpi di coda' possono fare arruffare le penne di vari studiosi... Di solito, sono piuttosto dubbioso e scettico di fronte a tutti coloro che annunciano di 'volere riscrivere la storia'. 
Troppo spesso, infatti, tale affermazione è fatta da imbonitori sulla pubblica piazza, tutti intenti a vendere - per rendiconto personale - il proprio ultimo ritrovato dolce-amaro a base di zucchero ed erba fandonia...
Non escludo in assoluto che la storia, così come è stata descritta, possa essere qua e là corretta in alcuni dettagli mal compresi fino ad oggi. Ma la totale riscrittura di qualche capitolo è comunque una operazione ponderosa (difficile vi siano state sviste di quella entità) e darne l'annuncio sensazionalistico è certamente una guasconata da ciarlatano, più che il comportamento corretto e prudente dello scienziato.

Si sa - ormai è un  concetto acquisito - che la storia dell'evoluzione delle specie è stata influenzata principalmente dal clima e quindi dalla geografia, dall'orografia, dalla geologia del mondo fisico circostante (anche se, certamente sì, il discorso è di quelli complessi, da non sintetizzare in una sola frase). 
Non dovrebbe destare sorpresa - quindi - che si scopra un altro, ennesimo esempio di questo principio generale accettato ormai ovunque. 
In questo caso, la cosa riguarda la Civiltà di Harappa, anche nota come Civiltà della Valle dell'Indo, o di Mohenjo-Daro.

La Civiltà di Harappa è poco nota e le recenti acquisizioni (di cui si dà l'annuncio sensazionale, da parte del Deccan College e della Università di stato di Seoul) ne stanno spostando indietro nel tempo le origini di circa un migliaio di anni, rispetto a quanto si pensasse prima. 

Inoltre, se ne definirebbe ormai un'origine certamente più orientale (nel bacino di Gagghar-Hakra, in cui pare scorresse l'antico fiume Saraswati: una specie di 'doppione', un po' più orientale, del fiume Indo) ed un solo successivo spostamento verso occidente.  
Sembrerebbe - in base ai nuovi studi - che un sito della civiltà di Harappa (Rakhighari, di cui prima si ritenevano esistenti la fase antica, l'intermedia e la tarda) sia scomparso in concomitanza con l'avvenuto prosciugamento per cause naturali di un fiume che ad esso permetteva la vita: il fiume Saraswati... Pertanto il sito sarebbe 'morto' nel 2.000 a.C. per 
via della siccità e non avrebbe potuto dunque sviluppare la fase tardiva... I ritrovamenti nel sito sarebbero così numerosi da superare ormai quelli della zona di Mohenjo-Daro, tanto da richiedere implicitamente un cambiamento anche di nome della cultura dell'epoca a sfavore della provicia pachistana del Sind di Mohenjo-Daro..

----------------

Alcuni, seppure niente affatto stupiti, non sono affatto d'accordo (anonimi professori di Dehli: questo forse ricorda qualche cosa, o qualcuno in particolare?) con quanto ipotizzato, annunciato, sostenuto sopra. 
Ritengono sia per lo meno sospetto il fatto che tale ipotesi 'storica' coincida con un cambio di potere ed ideologia politica in India (a cui tale teoria è gradita). 

Ritengono inoltre che tale problema non debba affatto essere risolto negli ambienti accademici - cui esso non compete - bensì guardando alle cose con occhi liberi da quello che definiscono un "prisma politicoideologico" deformante (fa pensare alle definizioni sperimentate più volte anche in queste pagine, oppure no?).

Le accuse di ciarlataneria da parte accademica non sono riportate dall'articolo (ma sembrano essere chiarite dall'espressione 'prisma politico-ideologico'), mentre le accuse da parte dei nuovi ricercatori sono chiare (anche se non sembrano conoscere il vocabolo 'negazionista'): "esisteranno sempre storici accademici che negheranno sempre l'esistenza deo Saraswati, per poter meglio accreditare le proprie convenienti teorie".

Che il fatto sia di grande interesse pubblico (e politico!) è dimostrato dal numero di dichiarazioni pubbliche che vari esponenti della politica e della cultura indiani si sono sentiti in dovere di fare, nel tempo (solo brevemente riassunti nella figura, più sotto). 

C'è persino almeno un libro (citato nell'articolo) in questo pasticcio. Sembrerebbe essere di una persona imparziale, che non può essere immischiato in sogni di grandeur identitaria Indiana inesistente, in quanto è francese: Michel Danino. Il libro s'intitola: "Il fiume scomparso, sulle tracce del Saraswati" e non è certamente una pubblicazione gratuita, ma certamente è appassionante lettura gratificante per moltissimi cultori locali.

I volenterosi 'riscrittori della storia' si lamentano perché gli archeologi accademici non s'affrettano ad andare a condurre scavi laddove essi chiedono a gran voce di cercare le prove delle loro teorie. Come se la questione politico identitaria avesse la priorità sulle già soverchianti e numerose priorità sociali dell'India. 
Comunque si dichiarano già entusiasti fin d'ora di quello che potranno offrire gli studi sull'aDNA (sono stati - dichiarano - attentissimi a non inquinare il materiale raccolto): potranno sapere di che colore erano capelli e pelle degli antichi Ariani, quali gusti  alimentari avessero, quale fosse il loro aspetto generale. E tutto sarà risolto. 
Proprio come avviene anche qui da noi, nel nostro splendido SardHindustan.



Excavations show that 

Harappan site died as Saraswati river dried 




 The Indus Valley civilisation, popularly known as Harappan civilisation, has been a puzzle for several decades now. 
But with the ongoing excavation in Rakhigarhi, Haryana, jointly conducted by archaeologists of Deccan College, Pune, and Haryana Department of Archaeology, along with forensic scientists from Seoul National University, South Korea, history is on the verge of being rewritten. 

Archaeological Survey of India, in collaboration with Deccan College of Pune  and scientists from Korea's Seoul National University, are excavating  a site in Rakhigarhi of Haryana [Credit: ASI]

 "After Rakhigarhi, we can say that the Harappan civilisation was at least 1,000 years older than earlier thought. 
And contrary to our longheld, conventional understanding, it first emerged in the east and then moved west, originating as it did in the heart of the Ghaggar-Hakra basin, regarded by many as the place where the Saraswati once flowed," says Vasant Shinde, vice-chancellor of Deccan College who heads the team of archeologists - the largest Harappan site overtaking Mohenjodaro in Pakistan's Sind province. 
What's going to ruffle quite a few feathers, is Harappa's supposed Saraswati connection, 
especially the way the drying up of one probably led to the decline of the other.

Rewriting history Shinde says that prior to his excavation it was believed that Rakhigarhi had all the three phases of the Harappan culture - 'Early', 'Mature' and 'Late'. 
"Our work proves that this place doesn't have the Late Harappan phase. It collapsed around 2000 BC," says he, adding: "I believe Rakhigarhi's sudden demise can be explained with the drying up of the Saraswati in 2000 BC." 

Shinde's claim is supported by Amarendra Nath, former ASI's archaeology director who had carried out excavation in Rakhigarhi between 1997 and 2000. 
"The ASI has so far discovered over 2,000 Harappan sites spread over Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. 
Of these, about 1,400 can be located in the Saraswati belt alone, while the Indus belt doesn't have more than 300-400 sites," he informs, adding: "We, in the ASI, had reached this conclusion long back. It's just that this information is coming out now."

But not everyone is impressed.

A Delhi University professor, wishing to remain anonymous, thinks this entire saga can only be analysed through the politicoideological prism, rather than the academic. 

"For me, Saraswati is a mythical river and nothing more. It's not a mere coincidence that all these things are coming up soon after the BJP came to power. It's an attempt to rewrite the history, the Aryan history," says he. 
Shinde seems circumspect on the Aryan migration issue. 
"It's for historians to decide. But as an archeologist, I can say with confidence that for at least 7,000 years, there has been no migration into this region. You go to the village today, and you will feel you are walking through the same, old Harappan civilisation thriving 5,000 years ago. The style of pottery is similar. So are the food habits," says he. 

Nath is more direct. "There will always be a set of historians who will continue to deny the existence of the Saraswati - to meet their ideological and personal requirements. They can afford to do that as history can be interpretational. (But) Not archaeology, which is based on solid evidences and facts. And evidences for long have been supporting the existence of the Saraswati in the region. Satellite imageries have proved beyond doubt the existence of a 'mighty' river drying up 4,000 years ago," Nath says. 

Michel Danino, author of The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati, reminds of the dilemma . "If we accept the Vedic hymns' description of a river flowing from the mountain to the sea and located between the Yamuna and Sutlej, the Ghaggar remains the sole candidate. But as we now know, this description can only apply to the third millennium BCE or earlier, an epoch that does not fit with the conventional scenario of a second millennium Aryan migration into India," says the French author. 
Nath has a solution to bridge this 'historical' divide. 
"Why don't the historians objecting to our claims set up their own body of archeologists and excavate these sites? Facts don't change with the change of experts. Sadly, they won't come up with such initiatives," says he. 
Neelesh Jadhao, co-director of the excavation , is excited that Korean forensic experts would conduct DNA tests on the excavated skeletons. 
"This time we have ensured skeletons don't get contaminated. 
We would know for the first time what the Harappans looked like, what they ate, what was the colour of their skin or hair, etc. 
It will add a new perspective to the Harappan study," says he. 

Source: India Today [May 22, 2015] 

DI CAVALLI, RINOCERONTI E TAPIRI

I Perissodattili (ungulati dispari, relativamente alle zampe posteriori) hanno una comune origine? Sì, e si sapeva già. 

Ma che avessero avuto una comune origine nel sub-Continente Indiano quando questo era ancora un'isola che viaggiava sicura verso l'ineluttabile scontro con il Continente Asiatico (per dare origine alla più alta catena mondiale di montagne), questo è una novità, offerta dalla Johns Hopkins University.

Vi esisteva uno strano animale, il Cambaytherium thewissi  (la cui ricostruzione sembra il disegno di un bambino), che - a quanto sembra - è il più antico progenitore mai scoperto  del gruppo dei perissodattili: la data dei fossili è 54,5 milioni di anni fa.
La scoperta è stata fatta per caso, nel corso di lavori di scavo ai margini di una miniera di carbone, presso Mumbay, in India. I lavori sono stati finanziati dalla National Geographic Society.


Horses and rhinos originated on Asian subcontinent while it was still an island 





Working at the edge of a coal mine in India, a team of Johns Hopkins researchers and colleagues have filled in a major gap in science's understanding of the evolution of a group of animals that includes horses and rhinos.

That group likely originated on the subcontinent when it was still an island headed swiftly for collision with Asia, the researchers report Nov. 20 in the online journal Nature Communications. 

An artist’s depiction of Cambaytherium thewissi  

[Credit: Elaine Kasmer]

Modern horses, rhinos and tapirs belong to a biological group, or order, called Perissodactyla. 
Also known as "odd-toed ungulates," animals in the order have, as their name implies, an uneven number of toes on their hind feet and a distinctive digestive system. Though paleontologists had found remains of Perissodactyla from as far back as the beginnings of the Eocene epoch, about 56 million years ago, their earlier evolution remained a mystery, says Ken Rose, Ph.D., a professor of functional anatomy and evolution at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. 
Rose and his research team have for years been excavating mammal fossils in the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming, but in 2001 he and Indian colleagues began exploring Eocene sediments in Western India because it had been proposed that perissodactyls and some other mammal groups might have originated there. 
In an open-pit coal mine northeast of Mumbai, they uncovered a rich vein of ancient bones. Rose says he and his collaborators obtained funding from the National Geographic Society to send a research team to the mine site at Gujarat in the far Western part of India for two weeks at a time once every year or two over the last decade. 
The mine yielded what Rose says was a treasure trove of teeth and bones for the researchers to comb through back in their home laboratories. 
Of these, more than 200 fossils turned out to belong to an animal dubbed Cambaytherium thewissi, about which little had been known. 
The researchers dated the fossils to about 54.5 million years old, making them slightly younger than the oldest known Perissodactyla remains, but, Rose says, it provides a window into what a common ancestor of all Perissodactyla would have looked like. 
"Many of Cambaytherium's features, like the teeth, the number of sacral vertebrae, and the bones of the hands and feet, are intermediate between Perissodactyla and more primitive animals," Rose says. 
"This is the closest thing we've found to a common ancestor of the Perissodactyla order." Cambaytherium and other finds from the Gujarat coal mine also provide tantalizing clues about India's separation from Madagascar, lonely migration, and eventual collision with the continent of Asia as Earth's plates shifted, Rose says. In 1990, two researchers, David Krause and Mary Maas of Stony Brook University, published a paper suggesting that several groups of mammals that appear at the beginning of the Eocene, including primates and odd- and even-toed ungulates, might have evolved in India while it was isolated. Cambaytherium is the first concrete evidence to support that idea, Rose says. 
But, he adds, "It's not a simple story."
 "Around Cambaytherium's time, we think India was an island, but it also had primates and a rodent similar to those living in Europe at the time," he says. 
"One possible explanation is that India passed close by the Arabian Peninsula or the Horn of Africa, and there was a land bridge that allowed the animals to migrate. 
But Cambaytherium is unique and suggests that India was indeed isolated for a while." Rose said his team was "very fortunate that we discovered the site and that the mining company allowed us to work there," although he added, "it was frustrating to knowing that countless fossils were being chewed up by heavy mining equipment." 
When coal extraction was finished, the miners covered the site, he says. His team has now found other mines in the area to continue digging.



Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine 

[November 20, 2014]

SICURAMENTE NURAGICO

5,000 year old Harappan stepwell found in Kutch 





A 5,000-year-old stepwell has been found in one of the largest Harappan cities, Dholavira, in Kutch, which is three times bigger than the Great Bath at Mohenjo Daro. 

The stepwell that was found during the excavation by ASI  in Dholavira, Kutch [Credit: Times of India]

 Located in the eastern reservoir of Dholavira by experts from the Archaeological Survey of India working with IIT-Gandhinagar, the site represents the largest, grandest, and the best furnished ancient reservoir discovered so far in the country. 
It's rectangular and 73.4m long, 29.3m wide, and 10m deep. 
Another site, the ornate Rani ki Vav in Patan, called the queen of stepwells, is already on Unesco list.
 "This is almost three times bigger than the Great Bath of Mohenjo Daro that's 12m in length, 7m in width, and 2.4m in depth," said V N Prabhakar, visiting faculty at IIT and superintending archaeologist, ASI. "We will conduct spot analysis in December as various surveys have indicated other reservoirs and stepwells may be buried in Dholavira," Prabhakar told TOI.
 "We also suspect a huge lake and an ancient shoreline are buried in the archaeological site that's one of the five largest Harappan sites and the most prominent archaeological site in India belonging to the Indus Valley civilization," he added. 
Experts will investigate the advanced hydraulic engineering used by Harappans for building the stepwell through 3D laser scanner, remote sensing technology and ground-penetrating radar system. 
"We will study how water flowed into the well and what was the idea behind water conservation," said Prabhakar. 
The IIT Gandhinagar team and ASI officials will also excavate various tanks, stoneware, finely furnished brick blocks, sanitation chambers and semi-precious stones hidden at the site. 
Precious stones like carnelian were in great demand during the Harappan era. 
Gujarat was the hub of bead and craft manufacturing industries. 
"Agate carnelian beads were also coveted," Prabhakar said. Siddharth Rai and V Vinod of IIT-Gn are working on characterization of internal structures of various forms of pottery unearthed from the site to identify the diet followed by Harappans. 
"Through pottery typology, we'll find out whether different communities lived in Dholavira," Rai said. 
The team will also analyze precious copper and bronze artefacts. 


Author: Ankur Tewari | Source: The Times of India [October 08, 2014]
Read more at: http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.it/2014/10/5000-year-old-harappan-stepwell-found.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheArchaeologyNewsNetwork+(The+Archaeology+News+Network)#.VDjdALCsWSo
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Alieni in India

Una volta si chiamavano 'extraterrestri'. Poi, dopo un fugace e romantico  interludio con 'visitors' sono stabilmente diventati 'alieni', seguendo i medesimi capricci della moda linguistica che hanno condotto l'inondazione a diventare di volta in volta una tracimazone e poi un'esondazione, invece che una semplice alluvione.
A differenza di quest' ultima - purtroppo vera e tangibile - gli "alieni" naturalmente non esistono, se non nella vivace fantasia di alcuni.


10,000-year-old rock paintings said to depict 'aliens 

and UFOs' found in Chhattisgarh 



  Prehistoric paintings in a cave in India may indicate that alien travelers visited the site eons ago, an archaeologist says. The paintings depict what appear as humanoids with featureless faces and a tripod object that could be a vehicle. 

Some of the ancient rock paintings carved on caves at 

Charama in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district 

[Credit: Times of India/Amit Bhardwaj] 

The peculiar find was discovered in a cave system under the Charama region in Kanker district in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Preliminary dating says the pictures are at least 10,000 years old, reports the Times of India. 

Archaeologist JR Bhagat believes that the paintings can serve as evidence of the paleocontact hypothesis, which says that in prehistoric times Earth was visited by members of an advanced alien civilization. 
"The findings suggest that humans in prehistoric times may have seen or imagined beings from other planets which still create curiosity among people and researchers. Extensive research is needed for further findings. 
Chhattisgarh presently doesn't have any such expert who could give clarity on the subject," Bhagat told the newspaper. 
The caves come under village Chandeli and Gotitola. Local residents have an ancient tale of "rohela people" – or the small ones – who used to come from the sky and took away several villagers, never to return.  "The paintings are done in natural colors that have hardly faded despite the years. 
The strangely carved figures are seen holding weapon-like objects and do not have clear features. Specially, the nose and mouth are missing,” the scientist said. 
“In a few pictures, they are even shown wearing space suits. 
We can't refute possibility of imagination by prehistoric men, but humans usually fancy such things," he added. Bhagat said the Chhattisgarh State Department of Archaeology and Culture plans to get in touch with the Indian national space agency and NASA as well as fellow archaeologists for consultations on the discovery. 

Source: RT [July 17, 2014]

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Granaio di Harappa, ad Haryana

Example of mud bricks (not from this archaeological site) 

[Credit: Wiki]

Harappan granary found in Haryana 





A “beautifully made” granary, with walls of mud-bricks, which are still in a remarkably good condition, has been discovered in the just-concluded excavation at Rakhigarhi village, a Harappan civilisation site, in Haryana. 

The granary, built of mud bricks, at the Harappan site of Rakhigarhi village in Haryana [Credit: Rakhigarhi Project/Deccan College, Pune] 

The granary has rectangular and squarish chambers. 
Its floor is made of ramped earth and plastered with mud. 
Teachers and students of the Department of Archaeology, Deccan College Post-Graduate & Research Institute, Pune, and Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana, excavated at Rakhigarhi from January to April this year. 

Vasant Shinde, Vice-Chancellor/Director, Deccan College, who was the Director of the excavation, said: “We excavated seven chambers in the granary. From the nature of the structure, it appears to be a big structure because it extends on all sides. We do not know whether it is a private or public granary. Considering that it extends on all sides, it could be a big public granary.
” 
He called it “a beautifully-made structure.” 
The excavating teams found several traces of lime and decomposed grass on the lower portion of the granary walls
. 
“This is a significant indication that it is a storehouse for storing grains because lime acts as insecticide, and grass prevents moisture from entering the grains. This is a strong proof for understanding the function of the structure,” explained Dr. Shinde, a specialist in the Harappan civilisation. 

A potsherd with a Harappan script unearthed in the excavation at the Harappan site  of Rakhi Garhi in Haryana [Credit: D.Krishnan]

 The discovery of two more mounds in Rakhigarhi in January this year led to Dr. Shinde arguing that it is the biggest Harappan civilisation site. There are about 2,000 Harappan sites in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. With the discovery of two more mounds, in addition to the seven already discovered, he estimated that the total area of Rakhigarhi was 350 hectares. It thus overtook Mohenjo-daro with about 300 hectares, in Pakistan, in laying claim to be the biggest Harappan site, he said. The Rakhigarhi site belongs to the mature Harappan phase, which lasted from 2600 BCE to 2000 BCE. The teams have also found artefacts, including a seal and potsherd, both inscribed with the Harappan script. In Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, granaries were found in citadels, where the ruling elite lived. So mound number four in Rakhigarhi, where the granary was found, could have been the settlement’s citadel, Dr. Shinde said. Rakhigarhi is situated in the confluence of Ghaggar and Chautang rivers and it was a fertile area. “So Rakhigarhi must have grown a lot of food grains. They could have been stored in the granary to pay for the artisans or other sections of society or to meet any crisis,” said Dr. Shinde. 

Author: T. S. Subramanian 

| Source: The Hindu [May 02, 2014]

Read more at: http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.it/2014/05/harappan-granary-found-in-haryana.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheArchaeologyNewsNetwork+(The+Archaeology+News+Network)#.U2S40Sh7DfW
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Clima e (scomparsa di) Civiltà.

Il declino delle grandi città della Civiltà dell'Indo, 4100 anni fa circa,  fu determinato da un indebolimento del Monsoni estivi (oggi scientificamente provato: vedi articolo in Inglese), che portò un periodo di siccità della lunghezza di almeno 200 anni. L'articolo dell'Università di Cambridge è riportato sulla rivista Geology del 25 Febbraio. Se ce ne fosse mai stato bisogno ecco un altro studio scientifico che dimostra come sia stato il clima - non episodi bellici - a spazzare via città anche grandi, quali erano quelle dell'Indo (superavano gli 80 ettari!) e a fare scomparire i loro floridissimi commerci con il Medio Oriente, impedendo che la loro protoscrittura si trasformasse in scrittura.

Decline of Bronze Age 'megacities' linked to climate change

 Climate change may have contributed to the decline of a city-dwelling civilization in Pakistan and India 4,100 years ago, according to new research.

Excavated ruins of Mohenjo-daro [Credit: The Story of India] 

Scientists from the University of Cambridge have demonstrated that an abrupt weakening of the summer monsoon affected northwest India 4,100 years ago. The resulting drought coincided with the beginning of the decline of the metropolis-building Indus Civilisation, which spanned present-day Pakistan and India, suggesting that climate change could be why many of the major cities of the civilisation were abandoned. The research, reported online on 25 February, 2014, in the journal Geology, involved the collection of snail shells preserved in the sediments of an ancient lake bed. By analysing the oxygen isotopes in the shells, the scientists were able to tell how much rain fell in the lake where the snails lived thousands of years ago. The results shed light on a mystery surrounding why the major cities of the Indus Civilisation (also known as the Harappan Civilisation, after Harappa, one of the five cities) were abandoned. Climate change had been suggested as a possible reason for this transformation before but, until now, there has been no direct evidence for climate change in the region where Indus settlements were located. Moreover, the finding now links the decline of the Indus cities to a documented global scale climate event and its impact on the Old Kingdom in Egypt, the Early Bronze Age civilisations of Greece and Crete, and the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia, whose decline has previously been linked to abrupt climate change. "We think that we now have a really strong indication that a major climate event occurred in the area where a large number of Indus settlements were situated," said Professor David Hodell, from Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences. "Taken together with other evidence from Meghalaya in northeast India, Oman and the Arabian Sea, our results provide strong evidence for a widespread weakening of the Indian summer monsoon across large parts of India 4,100 years ago." Hodell together with University of Cambridge archaeologist Dr Cameron Petrie and Gates scholar Dr Yama Dixit collected Melanoides tuberculata snail shells from the sediments of the ancient lake Kotla Dahar in Haryana, India. "As today, the major source of water into the lake throughout the Holocene is likely to have been the summer monsoon," said Dixit. "But we have observed that there was an abrupt change, when the amount of evaporation from the lake exceeded the rainfall – indicative of a drought." At this time large parts of modern Pakistan and much of western India was home to South Asia's great Bronze Age urban society. As Petrie explained: "The major cities of the Indus civilisation flourished in the mid-late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC. Large proportions of the population lived in villages, but many people also lived in 'megacities' that were 80 hectares or more in size – roughly the size of 100 football pitches. They engaged in elaborate crafts, extensive local trade and long-ranging trade with regions as far away as the modern-day Middle East. But, by the mid 2nd millennium BC, all of the great urban centres had dramatically reduced in size or been abandoned." Many possible causes have been suggested, including the claim that major glacier-fed rivers changed their course, dramatically affecting the water supply and the reliant agriculture. It has also been suggested that an increasing population level caused problems, there was invasion and conflict, or that climate change caused a drought that large cities could not withstand long-term. "We know that there was a clear shift away from large populations living in megacities," said Petrie. "But precisely what happened to the Indus Civilisation has remained a mystery. It is unlikely that there was a single cause, but a climate change event would have induced a whole host of knock-on effects. "We have lacked well-dated local climate data, as well as dates for when perennial water flowed and stopped in a number of now abandoned river channels, and an understanding of the spatial and temporal relationships between settlements and their environmental contexts. A lot of the archaeological debate has really been well-argued speculation." The new data, collected with funding from the Natural Environment Research Council, show a decreased summer monsoon rainfall at the same time that archaeological records and radiocarbon dates suggest the beginning of the Indus de-urbanisation. From 6,500 to 5,800 years ago, a deep fresh-water lake existed at Kotla Dahar. The deep lake transformed to a shallow lake after 5,800 years ago, indicating a weakening of the Indian summer monsoon. But an abrupt monsoon weakening occurred 4,100 years ago for 200 years and the lake became ephemeral after this time. Until now, the suggestion that climate change might have had an impact on the Indus Civilisation was based on data showing a lessening of the monsoon in Oman and the Arabian Sea, which are both located at a considerable distance from Indus Civilisation settlements and at least partly affected by different weather systems. Hodell and Dixit used isotope geochemical analysis of shells as a proxy for tracing the climate history of the region. Oxygen exists in two forms – the lighter 16O and a heavier 18O variant. When water evaporates from a closed lake (one that is fed by rainfall and rivers but has no outflow), molecules containing the lighter isotope evaporate at a faster rate than those containing the heavier isotopes; at times of drought, when the evaporation exceeds rainfall, there is a net increase in the ratio of 18O to 16O of the water. Organisms living in the lake record this ratio when they incorporate oxygen into the calcium carbonate (CaCO3) of their shells, and can therefore be used, in conjunction with radiocarbon dating, to reconstruct the climate of the region thousands of years ago. Speculating on the effect lessening rainfall would have had on the Indus Civilisation, Petrie said: "Archaeological records suggest they were masters of many trades. They used elaborate techniques to produce a range of extremely impressive craft products using materials like steatite, carnelian and gold, and this material was widely distributed within South Asia, but also internationally. Each city had substantial fortification walls, civic amenities, craft workshops and possibly also palaces. Houses were arranged on wide main streets and narrow alleyways, and many had their own wells and drainage systems. 
Water was clearly an integral part of urban planning, and was also essential for supporting the agricultural base. At around the time we see the evidence for climatic change, archaeologists have found evidence of previously maintained streets start to fill with rubbish, over time there is a reduced sophistication in the crafts they used, the script that had been used for several centuries disappears and there were changes in the location of settlements, suggesting some degree of demographic shift." "We estimate that the climate event lasted about 200 years before recovering to the previous conditions, which we still see today, and we believe that the civilisation somehow had to cope with this prolonged period of drought," said Hodell. The new research is part of a wider joint project led by the University of Cambridge and Banaras Hindu University in India, which has been funded by the British Council UK-India Education and Research Initiative to investigate the archaeology, river systems and climate of north-west India using a combination of archaeology and geoscience. The multidisciplinary project hopes to provide new understanding of the relationships between humans and their environment, and also involves researchers at Imperial College London, the University of Oxford, the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and the Uttar Pradesh State Archaeology Department. "It is essential to understand the link between human settlement, water resources and landscape in antiquity, and this research is an important step in that direction," explained Petrie. "We hope that this will hold lessons for us as we seek to find means of dealing with climate change in our own and future generations." 

Source: University of Cambridge [February 26, 2014]

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Climate caused the Late Bronze Age collapse in the Eastern Mediterranean

PLoS ONE 8(8): e71004. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0071004

Environmental Roots of the Late Bronze Age Crisis 

David Kaniewski et al.

The Late Bronze Age world of the Eastern Mediterranean, a rich linkage of Aegean, Egyptian, Syro-Palestinian, and Hittite civilizations, collapsed famously 3200 years ago and has remained one of the mysteries of the ancient world since the event’s retrieval began in the late 19th century AD/CE. Iconic Egyptian bas-reliefs and graphic hieroglyphic and cuneiform texts portray the proximate cause of the collapse as the invasions of the “Peoples-of-the-Sea” at the Nile Delta, the Turkish coast, and down into the heartlands of Syria and Palestine where armies clashed, famine-ravaged cities abandoned, and countrysides depopulated. Here we report palaeoclimate data from Cyprus for the Late Bronze Age crisis, alongside a radiocarbon-based chronology integrating both archaeological and palaeoclimate proxies, which reveal the effects of abrupt climate change-driven famine and causal linkage with the Sea People invasions in Cyprus and Syria. The statistical analysis of proximate and ultimate features of the sequential collapse reveals the relationships of climate-driven famine, sea-borne-invasion, region-wide warfare, and politico-economic collapse, in whose wake new societies and new ideologies were created. 

Barbari incivili

I due fucilieri di Marina Massimiliano Latorre e Salvatore Girone (foto Ansa)

Il ministro indiano: "Non faremo marcia indietro" -

 Il ministro della Difesa indiano A.K. Antony ha negato che vi possano essere "cedimenti" del governo indiano riguardo al processo dei marinai italiani.

"Stiamo andando avanti su questa vicenda in base alle leggi indiane". 

Ha poi assicurato che "non c'e' spazio per compromessi" e non "faremo marcia indietro": "saranno processati con le leggi del nostro Paese".

Antony, che è originario del Kerala, Stato dove è avvenuto (nel Febbraio 2012!) l'incidente, ha risposto così alla domanda di un giornalista che gli chiedeva se il governo stesse ammorbidendo la sua posizione dopo che il ministero della Giustizia aveva sposato l'opinione del ministero degli Esteri sulla inapplicabilità della legge per la repressione della pirateria (Sua Act). 

Il ministro ha concluso sostenendo che comunque la decisione viene trattata dai ministeri dell'Interno e degli Esteri. 

Domani pomeriggio il procuratore indiano G.E. Vahanvati dovrebbe presentare alla Corte Suprema la soluzione trovata dal governo per processare i due Fucilieri di Marina.

Ma sono trascorsi già più di due anni! E non è stato formulato un capo d'accusa! Però i due militari sono in stato di fermo, lontano dalla patria e dalle famiglie!

Quale paese può dirsi civile, se non riesce a concludere un'incresciosa querelle internazionale di questo tipo?

Non è l'Italia - bensì l'incapacità inconcludente dell'India - che permette ai pirati la frequentazione delle acque Indiane, rendendole pericolose e rendendo necessari i militari d'accompagnamento. 

l'Italia era presente proprio per impedirne le azioni violente ed illegali!
E si sa che, ovunque siano presenti i soldati armati, non sono certamente lì per distribuire fiori.
Ci sono 'scappati' due morti civili indiani: ce ne dispiace, ma lo Stato Indiano ne è totalmente corresponsabile, dopo avere firmato gli accordi internazionali.

 Proprio sabato, come primo atto del neo premier Matteo Renzi aveva chiamato i due marò Massimiliano Latorre e Salvatore Girone per assicurare che il governo italiano farà di tutto per riportarli a casa. 
 Ora comincerà l’attività diplomatica dei neo ministri degli Esteri e della Difesa Federica Mogherini e Roberta Pinotti che hanno assicurato ai due militari la «determinazione a fare tutto il possibile per riconsegnarli quanto prima alle loro famiglie. Siete il mio primo pensiero e il primo del nuovo governo». 

L'Europa dovrebbe prendere posizione in maniera molto più chiara ed intransigente, minacciando, se non addirittura mettendo in atto, un'interruzione di tutte le attività commerciali, umanitarie e di aiuto di ogni tipo.
Con persone che non comprendono e non rispondono alle buone maniere, si devono usare le cattive.