Underwater archaeology
Also called: Marine archaeology · Topic: Studying Indian History: Sources, Dating and Historiography · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Underwater archaeology, also called marine archaeology, studies remains that now lie under the sea, rivers or lakes. These include sunken buildings, old harbours, shipwrecks and anchors. Divers and special survey tools are used to find and record them. It matters for India because the long coastline had ports and sea trade from very early times, and some old coastal settlements now lie underwater.
Example
From the 1980s, the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, explored the sea off Dwarka and Bet Dwarka in Gujarat. It found the remains of stone structures and stone anchors on the seabed.
Related concepts
- Sources of history
- Archaeology
- Numismatics
- Archaeo-botany
- Literary sources
- Oral tradition
- Hagiography
- Kalhana
- Rajatarangini
- Indica of Arrian