How the Indus River Valley Civilization Adapting to a Changing Climate

With climate change in our own era becoming increasingly evident, it's natural to wonder how our ancestors may have dealt with similar environmental circumstances. New research methods and technologies are able to shed light on climate patterns that took place thousands of years ago, giving us a new perspective on how cultures of the time coped with variable and changing environments.

A new article in the February issue of Current Anthropology explores the dynamics of adaptation and resilience in the face of a diverse and varied environmental context, using the case study of South Asia's Indus Civilization (c.3000-1300 BC). Integrating research carried out as part of the Land, Water and Settlement project -- part of an ongoing collaboration between the University of Cambridge and Banaras Hindu University -- that worked in northwest India between 2007 and 2014, the article looks at how Indus populations in north-west India interacted with their environment, and considers how that environment changed during periods of climate change.

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