DISCUSSION A NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIND IN THE GULF OF CAMBAY, GU JARAT by S. Kathiroli, S. Badrinarayanan, D. Venkata Rao, S.N. Rajaguru, K.M. Sivakholundu and B. Sasisekaran. Jour. Geol. Soc. India, v.60, pp.4 19-428 R.V. Karanth, Department of Geology, M.S. University of Baroda, Vadodara - 390 002, comments: The authors deserve to be congratulatedfor the discovery of the new archaeological find in the Gulf of Cambay, Gujarat (Kathiroli et al. 2002). However, there are a few aspects which need to be clarified: 1. It is improper to correlate the E-W alignment of palaeochannels with the direction of course of Tapi river on the eastern side of the Gulf with that of the Satrunji river on the west. If the course of Tapi river is taken as the continuation of Satrunji river channel in the west, Kalubhar river could likely be the western extension of Narmada river and Ghelo Nadi/Keri Nadi be taken as western extension of Mahi river and so on. Is it desirable to take such a correlation of E-W extension of river systems? Whether the river systems on either side of a rift are correlatable with such ease? 2. The broken barrel shaped bead (Fig.10) measures 13 mm in length, 6 mm in width with a 4 mrn hole, which leaves its wall to be as thin as 1 mm. It is amazing that such a bead was made from a material like chert some eight millenniums ago. These beads need to be properly identified and thoroughly studied. The line drawings of various artifacts (Fig. 14, p.425) with a figure appearing like that of a dog's head seem to be highly imaginative. The sample of the perforated stone inspected under optical microscope (100 X) is said to have yielded conchoidal shaped irregular depression (Figs, 15 and 16, p.426). However, these figures do not reveal such conchoidal fractures. Mottled appearance of the object (artefact no.28 inset figure) indicates that the object could be coarser grained sandstone but not a material that could yield conchoidal fracture such as crystalline or cryptocrystalline silica. It is unlikely that conchoidal fractures could be produced from such a specimen. 3. The rise and fall of sea level in the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene has been discussed by Nigam and Hashimi (2002) in response to Gupta's note (2002). A fall of -40 m in -9500 BP that stabilized for around 1000 years has been suggested by Nigam and Hashimi (op. cit.) which coincides with the likely existence of the present discovery. S. Kathiroli, S. Badrinarayanan, D. Venkata Rao, S.N. Rajaguru, K.M. Sivakholundu and B. Sasiselcaran, National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai - 600 03 1, reply: We are thankful to Prof. R.V. Karanth for his valuable comments on our paper (Kathiroli et al. 2002). The clarifications sought by Prof. Karanth are as follows: 1. Correlation of E-W alignments of palaeochannels of the Tapi on the eastern side of the Gulf of Catmbay with that of Satrunji river on the west is at present hypothetical and future work on sediment cores, which are being systematicalfy collected all along the possible alignment will throw additional light on the validity or otherwise of our hypothesis. 2. The broken barrel shaped bead on chert is one of the most interesting finds from our collection so far. Making beads from hard stones like chert certainly requires an appropriatetechnology, especially a method of driIling. The earliest report of double tipped diamond drills used on hardstones is from Hazar-ar-Rayhani, Yemen, dated to around seventh to fifth century BC (Peter Francis, 2002). In the Indian sub-continent beads on chertlchalcedony materials were first produced at Mergarh (now in Pakistan) around 6000 BC (Jamge et al. 1995). In the light of evidence in Yemen and Mergarh , and our discovery of a broken bead on chert, dated to around 6000 BC, a new line of research in bead technology and trade is warranted. We are aware of difficulties involved in interpreting perforations in sandstone. It is not easy to separate anthropogenic factors from natural ones in this case. Our attempt in resolving this problem by using optical JOUR.GEOL.SOC.INDIA, VOL.61, FEB. 2003