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| Ratnagiri Petroglyph 12000 years old script in ruins |
By Monidipa Bose - Dey, @monidipadey, Twitter, 10th June 2025.
It now seems the Harappan culture was not the start of Indian civilisation, but just another dot in our long story of human civilisation.
New studies have revealed that humans lived in Gujarat's Kutch area over 12,000 years ago, predating the Harappan culture by 5000 years. These people ate molluscs found in the region’s mangrove forests, and used a variety of stone tools to hunt.
This new discovery suggests that instead of any sudden external influence, there has been a gradual, locally rooted process of adaptation and cultural development in human civilisation in the Indian subcontinent.
‘The accumulated knowledge of local geology, water resources, and navigation of these pre-historic humans may have later helped the Harappans plan their settlements more effectively and engage in long-distance trade.’
So now we push back our civilisational timeline to 12000 years from BP, leaving behind the SSVC [Sindhu Saraswati Valley Civilisation].
Personally I think, even earlier, around 40-50,000 years back, India likely had one of the largest Homo sapiens population (beyond Africa), and this is supported by various evidences (climatic and archaeological). While much of the northern parts of Europe and Asia remained uninhabitable during Ice Age; the Indian subcontinent had mild climate, innumerable rivers, fertile valleys, and coastal areas. With plenty of water sources, unlimited food, and safe shelters, early humans would have thrived here.
Archaeological evidences from sites like Jwalapuram, Attirampakkam, and the Narmada Valley, suggest continued human habitation from antiquity. India also likely served as a main point for human migration into Southeast Asia and Oceania.
So it can be said that India was a key center in the history of early human habitation, especially during the revolutionary time when Homo sapiens undertook global dispersal.
To read more on this latest findings of Kutch: Archaeological evidence reveals human habitation in Kutch predated Harappans by 5,000 years