Ashish Vashi & Harit Mehta, TNN | Feb 25, 2010, 07.11AM IST
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AHMEDABAD: About 75 km from here lies a landmark of Indian maritime history. Archaeologists believe the first tidal dockyard in the world was built in Lothal. A port city, Lothal was the focal point of Harappan civilisation in Gujarat.
Built here was the earliest known dock in the world, equipped to berth and service ships. Lothal engineers studied tidal movements and their effects on brick-built structures and constructed kiln-burnt brick walls.
In a paper 'Foraminifera As Tool In Marine Archaeology', Rajiv Nigam of National Institute of Oceanography states: "With the help of foraminiferal occurrence it was conclusively proved that the rectangular structure at Lothal, Harappan settlement, was a dockyard — first naval dockyard of the world as claimed by archaeologists — and not a fresh water storage tank. The studies also provided support for archaeological inference about great floods at 2000 and 1500 BC."
Archaeologist S R Rao, who excavated Lothal site, writes, "Lothal dockyard had features which in terms of height, width, and length compared favourably with the modern dockyards of Bombay and Visakhapatnam."
Boats of 60-75 tonnes capacity and 20-25 metres in length could enter Lothal dock, which was designed in such a manner as to ensure berthing 20-30 boats of a fairly large size. Large foreign and Indian ships could enter the harbour without any difficulty.
The Harappan merchants and navigators were familiar with Indian Ocean routes and overseas markets. In those days, Gujaratis traded with countries like Iraq (Mesopotamia), Qatar, Persia and Egypt.
"The brick-laid docks, wharfs, jetties and warehouses provided infrastructure facilities to the inland and maritime trade, while bullock-carts provided transportation. Add to this the Harappans' knowledge of weight and measures, which enabled customs officials to count and collect revenues from imports and exports, and we get glimpses of an administrative set-up of considerable sophistication," writes historian Makrand Mehta in 'History of International Trade And Customs Duties In Gujarat'.