To waste or not to waste: A multi-proxy analysis of human-waste interaction and rural waste management in Indus Era Gujarat

Abstract

Waste management is paramount to town planning and ancient civilizations across the world have spent resources and mobilized labor for waste disposal and reuse. While the Indus Civilization is famous for its urban waste management practices, almost no work has been done on waste management practices at the Indus Era rural settlements. In this paper, using isotopic and microscopic proxies, we characterize the waste that was disposed of at the settlement of Kotada Bhadli to reconstruct the sources of waste, including animal dung, and how rural agro-pastoral settlements in Gujarat during the Indus Era systematically discarded such waste in specific locations. By characterizing waste produced at Kotada Bhadli, we are also able to reconstruct the natural environment and how the natural and cultural landscape around the settlement was exploited by the residents of settlement for their domestic and occupational needs. Our identification of the attention paid to waste disposal by the inhabitants of Kotada Bhadli adds significant data to our understanding of waste disposal as an insight into past lives.