BBC News Online: World: South Asia

Indian site suggests ancient civilisation

The minister for ocean technology Murli Manohar Joshi said wooden artifacts discovered along a now-submerged river bank in the Gulf of Cambay in the Arabian Sea had been carbon-dated and revealed to be from around 7,500 BC.

Last year, scientists thought that the submerged structures at the site were evidence of the 4,000 year old Harappan civilisation - thought to have been the oldest in the region.

But this latest discovery, if confirmed, suggests the subcontinent may have been home to an even older civilisation than the Harappan people.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service