“This sole evidence would not do. There are half a dozen Indus port towns in the state, each with some concrete evidence like dockyard and the like. But nothing of this sort has been found at Dholavira. But further study could through up valuable evidence,” says Y M Chitalwala, retired assistant director of the Archaeological Survey of India, who has spent long years in Kutch on the study of Dholavira and other Harppan sites.

He says there are also other seaport related questions that need to be answered, like the export products and the sea-route for trade with Mesopotamia (present day Iraq).

He says, well-known Finnish explorer, the late Thor Hyerdahl, had in his study, two decades back, talked of a coastline hugging sea-route through the Persian Gulf that was used by the Mesopotamians and the Harappans for trade, but that also is a mere possibility as the people then were not aware of seasonal weather variations like the monsoon and the Trade wind directions.

Former curator of the Bhuj Museum, Dilip Vaidya says the lack of knowledge in Harappan sea-trade is primarily because of the absence of any study on the subject by Indian archaeologists. “Our archaeologists should have carried out expeditions on the Harappan era ships that went to the Middle East to test their viability along with the route they took to go there,” he says.

He says while the Royal family of Oman did launch its failed Sohar expedition from Oman to Mandvi in Kutch to check the viability of a sea route to India in the almost same type of vessels in use thousands of years back, Indian archaeologists did not evince any interest in the project. “This would have helped us geo-politically in the Gulf, more so as we are emerging as a power to be reckoned with, in the region,” he says.

Local experts are also peeved over the non-publication of any report on the first phase of the excavation at Dholavira, which was completed many years ago. “There is no interim report to help the archaeologists in our country and abroad interested in Dholavira, to minutely study this important archaeological site,” says an expert on condition of anonymity.

According to him, much of the credit for Dholavira goes to retired director of the Archaeological Survey of India Bishta who spent more than a decade to dig up the site and take out unique finds from beneath the barren looking mounds. He says the report was to be written by Bishta, but he had to wait for the department to make the excavated material available to him.