Trade in the Indus Valley Civilization was carried on by land routes and sea routes. There were a lot of maritime ports like Lothal and Rangpur in Surendranath district.
Lothal, an Indus site has revealed a brick build dockyard
system which worked on tidal principle. Professor S. R. Rao has traced the
history of Lothal on the Gulf of Cambay (Gujarat) as a port of the Indus Valley
Civilization.
Lothal is located in the coastal flats of the Gulf of
Cambay. This place seems to have been an outpost for sea trade with
contemporary West Asian societies. Its excavator S. R. Rao claims to have
discovered a dockyard there.
According to recent information at the Eastern flank of
this Lothal site is a large basin approximately 214 X 37 meters in dimension
which has been represented as a dock and further more the discovery of the
Persian Gulf Seal at Lothal determines the fact to acknowledge Lothal as an
important port for trade of the Indus Valley Civilization in the Arabian
peninsular and the near East.
Some of the seals excavated at Lothal bear pictures of
ships. Moreover, recent excavations at Lothal have brought out five terracotta
models of ships both with and without mast indicating Lothal’s importance as a
port.
According to Prof. Sadashiv Gorakshar and K. Desai, the
exact site of Lothal is about 16 kms form the confluence of the Sabarmati and
Bhogavo rivers.
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