Abrupt climate change and the decline of Indus urbanism

Climate change has been suggested as a cause for the decline of the cities of the Indus Civilization, which is believed to have begun ~4.0 to 3.9 ky B.P. Previous studies have centered on paleoclimatic records obtained from areas outside the geographic limits of the Indus Civilization, raising questions about their suitability for evaluating past climate-cultural linkages. Here we report a detailed climate record from paleolake Kotla Dahar, Haryana (28°00'095'' N, 76°57'173'' E), located at the eastern edge of the distribution of Indus settlements and ~100km to the east of the city-site of Rakhigarhi in NW India. Regional hydrologic changes are inferred using oxygen-isotope measurements of gastropod aragonite from a 2.88-m sediment section. A permanent ~4‰ increase in δ¹⁸O of shell aragonite occurred at ~4.1±0.1 ky B.P., marking an abrupt increase in evaporation/precipitation in the lake catchment. These data provide evidence for a weakening of the monsoon and shift toward drier climate on the plains of northwest (NW) India at ~4.1±0.1 ky B.P. Decreased monsoon rainfall at this time may have been linked to increased ENSO variability, and supports a possible role of climate in the transformation of the Indus Civilization from an urbanized (mature or urban Indus) to a rural (post-urban) society.