India, Feb. 17 -- The Indus Valley or Harappan Civilisation of the Indian subcontinent could be over 8,000 years old, something which would make it more ancient than peers like Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), Egypt or China, a new paper has claimed.

The authors of the paper reached the conclusion after performing radiocarbon dating at Bhirrana in Haryana.

Bhirrana was part of a high concentration of settlements along the dried-up bed of the river known as 'Saraswati' in the Vedas. It is identified with the Ghaggar-Hakra river system today.

"Isotope and archaeological data suggest that the pre-Harappans started inhabiting this area along the mighty Ghaggar-Hakra rivers fed by intensified monsoon from 9 to 7 ka BP. The monsoon monotonical...