Submerged advanced coastal cities? (9,500 years old?)
(originally posted 8/8/2020 on Facebook)
Today’s 10,000 year old site is steeped in myth, pseudo-archaeology, history, alien conspiracy theories, religion, and mystery. The world is full of ancient flood myths and also full of people who would love to find evidence of antedilluvian (pre-flood) civilizations. If there is any truth to the myths, it is likely that they are a memory of a series of ancient sea level rises that occured at the end of the last ice age, as the glaciers melted. That is what some people thought was found when the Indian government announced the apparent discovery of ancient large twin cities at the bottom of the Gulf of Khambhat in 2001. They saw what appeared to be large building structures on the sea floor built near some old river channels. They had dredged up artifacts from the sea bottom, such as pottery shards, human bones, and stone tools. Wood found at the site was carbon dated and used to suggest its age was a whopping 9,500 years old. This is twice as old as the bronze age Indus Valley Civilization, which flourished nearby, the oldest known civilization in India and contempory to ancient egypt, crete, mycenea, and china. There were small scale urban centers in Turkey and the Levant at the time, but nothing on the scale of this “Khambhat Civilization”. This intrigued Graham Hancock, who added this to a list of underwater sites from around the world that seemed to argue that a global civilization had existed before the sea level rise, but which had sunk into the sea, like Atlantis.
Some linked this site to a the mythological city Davaraka (Dwarka). Ancient Hindu holy text tells the tale of a great city in India that fell into the sea thousands of years ago, founded by the hero or god figure Krishna, called Dwarka, who reclaimed land from the sea to build it. There is a modern city named Dwarka off of the coast in its honor, located on the other side of the coast of the state of Gujarat to the west of the Khambhat cities. The city has a temple dedicated to Krishna and the memory of the original Dwarka, which is one of the four main pilgrim sites in Hindu where the devout retrace the life of Lord Krishna. The original city is generally thought to be 3-5 thousand years old, perhaps part of the Indus Valley Civilizations. Could it be connected to the newly found cities, or even actually be one of these two cities? The hindu holy texts described the city being assaulted by flying machines, which were shot down by advanced weaponry reminiscent of rockets. Krishna successfully defended the city, but upon his untimely death, it collapsed into the sea. Could ancient civilizations have advanced technology that was later lost, or perhaps were these texts describing ancient alien ufos? A good number of ancient mystery and ufo conspiracy documentaries were created on the topic. It makes for good entertainment.
Now for a reality check. Most archaeologists dispute the meaning of the 9,500 year old wood piece that was found. It wasn’t obtained by normal archaeological means, such as by going down there, poking around, and finding it within a certain layer of sediment within a specific context. Instead, a big machine floating at the surface just took a big drill and scooped it up. There’s no way to know if it can actually be associated with the underwater city. All it means is that there was probably a forest around there 9,500 years ago, the city could have been built later. The wood could have drifted in from anywhere. It’d be kinda cool if there was maybe a smaller more reasonable sized settlement there 10,000 years ago, but I don’t think there’s even enough evidence to suggest that. Most archaeologies dismiss the claims of buildings on the site altogether, and consider them to be naturally occuring geological stone structures which were later submerged. They point out other places in the world where similar looking natural stone features exist on land. These may bear a striking resemblance to giant cut stone blocks forming a larger structure, but are actually naturally forming fractured stone structures caused in the aftermath of earthquakes. There’s been other artifacts found that suggest an old age, but nothing that convinces mainstream scientists. These artifacts may have been washed up by a river from the the Indus Valley Civilization town of Lothol, which is located near the coast of the gulf, or perhaps from elsewhere. Other artifacts they say are likely not manmade at all, and instead are naturally formed rocks. The whole site may simply be an illusion. The site is well known for its earthquakes, so archaeologists don’t think it would be possible to get good chronological data from the place because everything would be jumbled up instead of in dateable layers, and not worth studying more.
Of course, scientists claiming something that someone wants to believe is something is in fact nothing remarkable causes some people to then believe they are really covering it up, and thus their curiosity is peaked and they become determined to get to the bottom of the conspiracy. If only the government would restart excavating the area. What are they trying to hide? I don’t think there is anything that the Indian government is trying to cover up. I think they’re just embarraced about the whole thing. It seems like they originally announced the findings with glee to the world with the hopes of bolstering Indian national pride and identity by saying that they were the home of the world’s oldest advanced civilization. But scientists around the world weren’t impressed and so after a few more years of research, they just backed off, probably hoping not to hear about it again. I do hope they allow curious divers to take a look though if they haven’t already though. Unless the currents really are too dangerous to handle I suppose. The site still has its believers though. Maybe they’ll have the last laugh as the detractors are shown to be overskeptical when it is looked at more closely. I kinda doubt it though.
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