Geologists believe that coast of western India came into being around 100 to 80 mya after it broke away from Madagascar. Soon after its detachment, the peninsular region of the Indian plate drifted over the Réunion hotspot, a volcanic hotspot in the Earth's lithosphere near the island of Réunion. An eruption here some 65 mya is thought to have laid down the Deccan Traps, a vast bed of basalt lava that covers parts of central India. This volcanic activity resulted in the formation of basaltic outcrops, such as the Gilbert Hill, that are seen at various locations in the city. Further tectonic activity in the region led to the formation of hilly islands separated by a shallow sea. Pleistocene sediments found near Kandivali in northern Bombay by British archaeologist Todd in 1939 indicate habitation since the Stone Age. The present day city was built on what was originally an archipelago of seven islands of Bombay Island, Parel, Mazagaon, Mahim, Colaba, Worli, and Old Woman's Island (also known as Little Colaba). The islands were coalesced into a single landmass by the Hornby Vellard engineering project in 1784. By 1000 BCE, the region was heavily involved in seaborne commerce with Egypt and Persia. The Koli fishing community had long inhabited the islands. They were Dravidian in origin and included a large number of scattered tribes along the Vindhya Plateau, Gujarat, and Konkan. In Bombay, there were three or four of these tribes. Their religious practices could be summed up as animism, and could not be suppressed by the Aryan invaders arriving in 350 BCE.
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