AHMEDABAD: What can a 4,000-year-old bovine tooth buried deep in the sediments reveal? Once in the hands of scientists, it can speak volumes of not only the animal's eating habits but also the environment it lived in.A team of anthropologists, geologists and archaeologists from Canada, South Africa , and India collaborated to analyse 23 teeth of cattle and sheep or goat, dating back to 2400-2000 BCE, found from the Mature Harappan site at Kotada Bhadli in Kutch. The study gives some insights into the hinterland of Harappan civilization; much is known about big towns such as Lothal and Dholavira The analysis of the enamel revealed that Kotada Bhadli was an agrarian-pastoral settlement and the animals fed on millets, a staple crop in Mature Harappan period, along with grass, barley and rice plant. It is possible that the animals were grazing at the nearby Banni grasslands in Kutch.According to the study, 60% of the cattle were adult, 30% of them were slaughtered as sub-adults, and 10% when they were below 1 year of age. In case of sheep or goats, only 17% survived till adulthood — meaning that they were probably slaughtered for meat.The study called ‘Enamel isotopic data from the domesticated animals at Kotada Bhadli, Gujarat, reveals specialized animal husbandry during the Indus Civilization’, published in the latest issue of Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, is authored by Kalyan Sekhar Chakraborty, Heather M L Miller, Supriyo Chakraborty, Petrus Le Roux, Prabodh Shirvalkar and Yadubirsingh Rawat. Dr Shirvalkar, assistant professor with Deccan College, Pune, said that the study is among the few carried out at Harappan sites in India that employed isotope and residue analysis technique to understand climatic conditions and lifestyle of the Harappan era. The samples were sent to Toronto for isotopic analysis, he said. The study also pointed at wide seasonal variation, with the animals getting adequate water only during monsoons. The diet however was steady, indicating their domestication as well as their utility in providing milk, wool, and leather.Analysis of strontium — an earth metal – level supported the hypothesis as it indicated that the animals were raised locally. Thus, those raising the cattle were not nomads.“Kotada Bhadli is a very small settlement compared to Lothal and Dholavira,” Shirvalkar said. “We were interested in the site to understand the hinterland of Harappan era when the towns were flourishing. The analysis points to a primarily agricultural-pastoral living.” Dr Y S Rawat, the director of the Gujarat state archaeology department, said that the settlement might have worked as the resting place for commuters traveling between major Harappan cities. “No evidence of production activities has been found from the site,” he said. “The site indicates how the smaller settlements in the area — identified as Sorath Harappan due to the traits in Saurashtra region — functioned.”

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