Module: | Archaeological Discovery & Civilization Decline
Q42: Consider the following statements regarding the environmental and climatic theories surrounding the Harappan decline:
1. Archaeological and palaeobotanical research strongly indicates that severe climate change, specifically a shift towards increased aridity, contributed significantly to the agricultural decline.
2. Extensive environmental evidence points to massive, civilization-wide deforestation, likely driven by the relentless need to harvest wood for baking millions of standardized structural bricks.
3. The drying up or shifting of major river systems, particularly the Ghaggar-Hakra system, effectively crippled the agricultural and settlement networks in regions like Cholistan.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
2. Extensive environmental evidence points to massive, civilization-wide deforestation, likely driven by the relentless need to harvest wood for baking millions of standardized structural bricks.
3. The drying up or shifting of major river systems, particularly the Ghaggar-Hakra system, effectively crippled the agricultural and settlement networks in regions like Cholistan.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
✅ Correct Answer: D
🎯 Quick Answer:
Option D is the correct answer, as all three statements accurately reflect the prevailing environmental theories regarding the civilization's collapse.Instead, the collapse is attributed to a complex matrix of long-term environmental degradation and climatic shifts that slowly destroyed the civilization's agricultural foundation.
Structural Breakdown: The environmental collapse had three primary vectors: climate change (decreased monsoon rainfall leading to aridity), anthropogenic degradation (deforestation), and hydrological shifts (rivers drying up or changing course). Historical/Related Context: The Ghaggar-Hakra river system, often identified with the mythological Saraswati river, was once heavily populated with mature Harappan sites.
As tectonic or climatic changes choked off its water supply, these settlements became entirely unviable.
Causal Reasoning: The Harappan urban model was incredibly resource-intensive.
The need to bake millions of bricks for civic infrastructure required massive amounts of timber for fuel.
Over centuries, this relentless deforestation, combined with a naturally drying climate and shifting rivers, completely exhausted the local carrying capacity of the land, forcing the population to abandon the mega-cities.