Abstract: The barrier island complex along the eastern Saurashtra Peninsula in the Gulf of Cambay, western India, drove the decline of Harappan salt-making during the 4.2 ka climatic transition. Integrating geomorphic, sedimentological, archaeological, and paleoclimatic data, this study reconstructs the evolution of longshore bars into barrier-lagoon and dune-mudflat systems that controlled tidal exchange, water depth, and salinity critical for salt production. Middle–late Holocene morphodynamics, under persistent global signature of low sea-level rise, and amplified sensitivity to 4.2 ka hydroclimatic perturbations (monsoon weakening, storm regime shifts, altered sediment supply), accelerating degradation of salt-production landscapes. Framing barrier islands as both agents and amplifiers of environmental change, this geoarchaeological analysis provides a process-based explanation for the spatial and temporal contraction of Harappan salt-making, arising from interactions among climate variability, relative sea-level changes, and barrier-island morphodynamics.
About the speaker: Dr. Dhananjay A. Sant, a retired Professor of Geology from the Department of Geology at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, India, holds over 38 years of academic and research experience. His expertise spans multidisciplinary studies in geology, geomorphology, paleoclimatology, geoarchaeology, and near-surface seismology. Dr. Sant obtained his Ph.D. in Geology in 1992 and a master’s degree in Geology (Honors) in 1987 from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. His research focuses on climate change dynamics, sedimentary processes, and subsurface imaging techniques. His impactful publications have significantly contributed to Earth Sciences, appearing in prestigious journals such as Geophysical Research Letters, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Frontiers Earth Science, Cretaceous Research, Current Science, Journal Geological Society of India. Dr. Sant has collaborated with esteemed institutions, including IISc Bangalore, Department of Ancient History and Archaeology at MSU, CSIR Fourth Paradigm Institute, Bengaluru, Geological Survey of India, Jammu University, Indian Institute of Geomagnetism, and the University of Cambridge. He has guided numerous Ph.D. students and serves as a reviewer for numerous international scientific journals and funding bodies. Dr. Sant’s pioneering research is on high-resolution quantitative sedimentology and profiling low-velocity zones within Quaternary sediments and beneath the Deccan Traps using microtremor HVSR technique. Microtremor HVSR technique has practical applications in engineering and mineral exploration, as well as carbon dioxide and hydrogen sequestration.