Lemmen, Carsten; Khan, Aurangzeb (2013): Simulated transition to agropastoralism in the Indus valley 7500-3000 BC [dataset]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.779706,

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Supplement to: Lemmen, C; Khan, A (2013): A simulation of the Neolithic Transition in the Indus Valley. In: L. Giosan, D. Q. Fuller, K. Nicoll, R. K. Flad & P. D. Clift (eds.) Climates, Landscapes, and Civilizations; American Geophysical Union, Geophysical Monograph Series, 198, 107-114, https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GM001217

The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was one of the first great civilizations in prehistory. This bronze age civilization flourished from the end of the fourth millennium BC. It disintegrated during the second millennium BC; despite much research effort, this decline is not well understood. Less research has been devoted to the emergence of the IVC, which shows continuous cultural precursors since at least the seventh millennium BC. To understand the decline, we believe it is necessary to investigate the rise of the IVC, i.e., the establishment of agriculture and livestock, dense populations and technological developments 7000-3000 BC. Although much archaeologically typed information is available, our capability to investigate the system is hindered by poorly resolved chronology, and by a lack of field work in the intermediate areas between the Indus valley and Mesopotamia. We thus employ a complementary numerical simulation to develop a consistent picture of technology, agropastoralism and population developments in the IVC domain. Results from this Global Land Use and technological Evolution Simulator show that there is (1) fair agreement between the simulated timing of the agricultural transition and radiocarbon dates from early agricultural sites, but the transition is simulated first in India then Pakistan; (2) an independent agropas- toralism developing on the Indian subcontinent; and (3) a positive relationship between archeological artifact richness and simulated population density which remains to be quantified.

Parameters:

(1) Time - Unit: simulation years since 0001-01-01, Range: -7500 to -3000

(2) Latitude - Unit: degree_north, Range: 23 to 37

(3) Longitude - Unit: degree_east, Range: 60 to 78

(4) Region - Description: Unique integer index of land region, Valid range: 1 to 685

(5) Farming - Description: fraction of agriculturalist and pastoralist activities in population, Range: 0.0 to 1.0

(5) Timing of farming - Description: Time when >=50% are devoted to farming, Units: simulation years since 0001-01-01

(6) Natural fertility - Description: climatically disturbed relative utility of the land for subsistence

(7) Population density - Description: population density, Units: km**-2

Data area presented as instantaneous values every 50 years on a geographic grid with half degree resolution, where latitude and longitude values denote the central geographic location within a grid cell.

This data set contributes to the Project: Integrated History and future of People on Earth (IHOPE).