Shell Middens Reveal Pre-Harappan Human Settlement in Kutch

• 06 Jun 2025

On 5th June 2025, researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) reported rare archaeological evidence of prehistoric human settlement in the Kutch region, predating the Harappan civilisation by over 5,000 years.

Key Points

• Early Inhabitants: Evidence from shell middens, stone tools, and shell scatters suggests Kutch was home to prehistoric hunter-gatherer communities inhabiting a mangrove-dominated environment.
• First of Their Kind: These are the first documented shell-midden sites in Kutch with clear cultural and chronological significance, previously unrecognised despite early British surveys.
• Carbon Dating with AMS: Using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry on shell samples, the team established precise dates, pushing back human presence in the region to well before Harappan urbanism.
• Wider Regional Links: Similarities with coastal sites in Pakistan’s Las Bela and Makran regions and the Oman Peninsula hint at shared survival strategies across ancient coastal communities.
• Stone Tool Culture: Discovery of cores and tools for cutting and scraping indicates active tool-making using locally sourced raw materials, possibly from Khadir Island.
• Climate Clues: Shell remains are expected to aid palaeoclimate studies, adding to IITGN’s earlier mapping of climate change in Khadir over the past 11,500 years.
• Cultural Continuity: Findings suggest a gradual local evolution of cultural practices, challenging the view that Kutch’s urbanism was primarily influenced by Sindh.