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The most dominating sight
at Lothal is the massive dockyard,
which has made Lothal so important
on the international archaelogical
map. Spanning an area, 37
meters from east to west and
nearly 22 meters from north
to south, the dock was perhaps
the greatest work of maritime
architecture before the birth
of Christ. It was excavated
besides the river Sabarmati,
which has since changed course
marginally, and showed a thorough
study of tides, hydarualics
and the effect of sea water
on bricks. Ships could sluice
into the northern end of the
dock through an inlet channel
connected to the estuary of
the river Sabarmati during
high tide, and the lock gates
were closed so the water level
would rise sufficiently for
them to float.
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Dockyard
in summerl |
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An inlet channel 1.7 meteres above the
bottom level of the 4.26 meter deep
tank, allowed excess water to escape,
while other inlets prevented siltation
of the tank and erosion of the banks.
After the ship had loaded or unloaded
its cargo, the gates were opened, for
them to return to Arabian sea waters
of the Gulf of Cambay. Archaelogical
finds from the excavations ratify trade
with the Egypt and Sumeria.The hydraulic
knowledge of the Harrapans can be judged
by the fact that boats could dock into
Lothal in the 1850s and in 1942 timber
was brought from Baruch to Saragwala
nearby. It is said that The dockyard
could at that time hold 30 ships of
60 tonnes each or vice versa-a cargo
comparable to that of the modern docks
at Vishakapatnam!
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Acropolis,
upper town, Lothal
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From the
plinth of the acropolis, it
is a short distance walk to
the lower town which contains
a commercial and residential
area. The arterial streets that
led from north to south, were
flanked by shops, merchant dwellings
and artisans' workshops, while
the streets running from east
to west led to the residential
areas with lanes allowing access
to individual dwellings. The
bead factories, situated where
the 8th street of the commercial
area and 5th street of the residential
area meet, comprised the main
industry of the Harrapans who
opted to slected the Gulf of
Cambay region because of it's
wealth of agate and other semi
precious stones. The factory
comprised 11 rooms, which included
the worker's quarters, warehouse
and gaurd room, surrounding
a courtyard.
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The main bead making machine was
a twin chambered klin, made from
mud plastered bricks, which was
used for heating the stones used
to make beads, and bellows helped
raise the temperatures within. Lothal
was specially famous for its micro
beads made by grinding the materials,
rolling it on a string, baking it
solid and finally sawing the roll
into required shapes and sizes.
Unique neclaces were made with microbeads
of gold, and some which are as little
as 0.25 MM in diameter are testimony
to the science of bead making perfected
by the Indus valley civilisation,
which has not been surpassed by
artisans at the main bead producing
centre at Cambay even today. The
middle classes who could not afford
gold, contented themselves with
gilded copper wires, and the low
income groups wore ornaments made
from shells and clay.
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