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Top image: Bed of Ghaggar River near Hanumangarh. Researchers claim this is the ancient Saraswati River. Source: Bharat Jhunjhunwala /

A river under a seasonal stream.

Ghaggar-Hakra, India. about 80,000 to 20,000 years ago. Before writing. Debated. Free

The Saraswati was not found.

Debated. Scientists found signs of an old river under a seasonal stream, but that does not prove the stream is the Saraswati.

The Ghaggar-Hakra is a seasonal stream on the northwest plains of India. It flows in the rainy season. Under it, researchers found three kinds of sediment, about 3 to 10 metres down, along about 300 kilometres of the course. A grey soil looks like the fill of channels in rivers that start in the Himalayas. The other soils fit a river that lost its force and slowed down. They dated shells and quartz from those layers. The page says a river ran here from about 80,000 to 20,000 years ago, dried up, and flowed again about 9,000 years ago. Harappan towns stood along these banks. Other Harappan cities, such as Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, stand on big rivers.

People still argue about whether this stream is the Saraswati.

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/saraswati-river-0012986