Abstract
The climatic conditions during the beginning of the last 5,000 years have been discussed, debated, and documented from various parts of the Indian subcontinent, due to the human–climate interrelationship. In the present study, we report a multi-proxy dataset encompassing the widely used ∼ geochemical and mineral magnetic proxies supported by radiocarbon and optical chronologies from the Banni Plains of the Rann of Kachchh, western India. Our results support the earlier observations of the prolonged wetter climatic condition synchronous with the mature phase of Harappan era which witnessed a short and intense arid condition at the terminal part of the mature Harappan phase. The climate system dramatically fluctuated during the last five millennia from pulsating between relatively arid (4,800–4,400 years BP, 3,300–3,000 years BP, and at 2,400 years BP) and relatively humid phases (>4,800 years BP, 4,000–3,300 years BP, 1900–1,400 years BP, and 900–550 years BP). The multi-proxy dataset shows a gradual strengthening of the monsoonal conditions from the Banni Plains during the late Harappan phase. Apart from this, the high sedimentation rate (>1 mm/yr) recorded from the Banni Plains suggests it can be tapped as a robust archive to reconstruct multi-decadal to centennial climatic events spanning the Holocene epoch.
Highlights
Southwest Indian monsoon has a high socioeconomic impact as it plays a key role in delivering annual rainfall in the Indian subcontinent (Anderson et al, 2010; Berkelhammer et al, 2010)
Some of the intriguing questions regarding the paleoclimatic conditions, in the Kachchh region of western India are as follows: 1) What were the paleoenvironmental conditions that existed in the Banni Grassland during the middle-to-late Holocene? 2) How did the climatic fluctuations change since the mature Harappan times? In light of this, the objective of the present study is to reconstruct the past climatic events from the Banni Plains and explore their nature/boundary conditions during the last 5,000 years using a multi-proxy dataset
Based on the multi-proxy dataset from the Banni Plains of the Kachchh region spanning last 5,000 years, the salient findings are as follows: 1. The periods from 4,800 to 4,400 cal yr BP are marked by abrupt drier climatic conditions in a multi-proxy dataset, which has been reported by several other studies from the regional archives owing to the initiation of synchronous deurbanization of Harappan settlements
Summary
Southwest Indian monsoon has a high socioeconomic impact as it plays a key role in delivering annual rainfall (nearly 80%) in the Indian subcontinent (Anderson et al, 2010; Berkelhammer et al, 2010). The mid-Holocene, in particular, has witnessed several changes in climate with abrupt short events recorded globally as well as in the Indian subcontinent (Lamb, 1985; Bianchi and Mc Cave, 1999; Anderson et al, 2010; Sanwal et al, 2013; Quamar and Chauhan, 2014; Ngangom et al, 2016). Laskar et al (2013) reported subhumid climatic conditions from fluvial sediments of the Mainland Gujarat region. The period between 2.8 and 1.3 ka has reportedly experienced arid conditions from the lacustrine and fluvial records of Mainland Gujarat (Laskar et al, 2013a; Prasad V. et al, 2014; Sridhar et al, 2014a). The mid-to-late Holocene tend to have recorded various centennial
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