Remote sensing-based evidence of Indus-era irrigation works in Punjab, Pakistan

This paper presents satellite remote sensing-based evidence for a newly discovered, Indus-era (2600–1900 BC) irrigation canal system in Punjab, Pakistan. Although scholars have long speculated about the role that irrigation may have played in sustaining agricultural systems in the Indus region during the third and early second millennium BC, direct evidence for irrigation works is largely absent owing to intensive reworking of the floodplain due to both anthropogenic and geomorphic processes. Analysis of historical CORONA, Landsat, and other satellite imagery, enabled us to identify a relict irrigation canal in a small area of the floodplain, while results from regional archaeological survey by the Beas River Survey project provide dating evidence for the canal from several Indus-era sites situated along its course. Results provide direct evidence for the construction and management of large-scale irrigation works during the Indus period, and thereby contribute to ongoing debates regarding ancient agricultural sustainability in during periods of climate change, potential human and land use impacts on Holocene floodplain development, and the role of irrigation and agricultural intensification on emerging social complexity.