The mysteries of a mass graveyard of early Indians

BBC
Fri, October 6, 2023 

Scientists estimate the presence of at least 500 graves at the 40-acre burial site in Gujarat

Scientists have unveiled a sprawling burial site in India belonging to one of the world's earliest urban civilisations. The BBC's Soutik Biswas delves into the clues the graves might give us about how the early Indians lived and died.

In 2019, as scientists embarked on excavating a mound of sandy soil near a remote village in the sparsely populated Kutch region, situated not far from Pakistan in India's western state of Gujarat, they had no inkling of the surprise that lay in store for them.

"When we began digging, we thought it was an ancient settlement. Within a week, we realised it was a cemetery," says Rajesh SV, an archaeologist with the University of Kerala, who led the search.

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Three excavation seasons - involving more than 150 Indian and international scientists - have been conducted so far at the 40-acre site. Researchers now estimate the presence of at least 500 graves of the Indus society, one of the world's earliest urban civilisations. (Some 200 of these graves have been excavated.)

Also known as the Harappan civilisation, named after its first city, this society - austere farmers and traders who lived in walled, baked-brick cities - rose to prominence some 5,300 years ago in what is now north-west India and Pakistan. In a century since the civilisation's initial discovery, researchers have unearthed up to 2,000 sites in India and Pakistan.

Scientists reckon the sprawling burial ground near Khatiya village in Gujarat may potentially be the largest "pre-urban" cemetery of the society discovered so far. They believe it was in use for about 500 years, spanning from 3200BC to 2600BC, making the oldest graves here around 5,200 years old.

Excavations so far have yielded a single intact male human skeleton, as well as partly preserved skeletal remains including skull fragments, bones and teeth.

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They have also found an array of burial artefacts - more than 100 bangles and 27 beads made of shell. Ceramic vessels, bowls, dishes, pots, small pitchers, beakers, clay pots, water cups, bottles and jars have also been discovered. Minor treasures include beads made of the semi-precious stone, lapis lazuli.

The graves have unique features, including sandstone-lined burial shafts that point in different directions. Some are oval shaped; others rectangular. There are smaller graves where children were buried. The bodies appear to be laid supine, but most bones have dissolved because of the acidic soil.

"This is a hugely significant find," says Brad Chase, a professor of anthropology at Albion College, Michigan.

Scientists have found an array of burial artefacts in the graves

"Several pre-urban cemeteries have been discovered in Gujarat, but this is by far the largest - and therefore has the potential to reveal a greater diversity of grave types that will help archaeologists to more fully understand pre-urban society in the region as well as provide crucial context for the other smaller cemeteries that have been previously discovered," says Prof Chase.

Earlier excavations of Indus sites in the Punjab region of today's Pakistan offer some clues about the burial practices of the Indus people.

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The funerals were unostentatious, unlike those of the elites in Egypt and Mesopotamia. No jewels and weapons accompanied the dead to the afterlife. Here, most bodies were wrapped in shrouds of textile and placed in rectangular wooden coffins. The grave pit was often filled with pottery offerings before the coffin was lowered into it, according to Jonathan Mark Kenoyer of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who is a scholar of the Indus Valley civilisation.

Some people were buried with personal ornaments - bangles, beads, amulets - which could not be passed on to others. Some women were buried with a mirror made of copper. Adults were buried with different types of vessels associated with serving and storing food, and some with specific ornaments - shell bangles were typically found on the left arms of adult females. Infants and children were not usually buried with any pottery or ornaments.

There was no evidence of substantial wealth in the graves and the health profile indicates that most were "well fed and healthy, although some had indications of arthritis and physical stress".

But the mystery of the massive burial ground in Gujarat is still to be unearthed.

For the scientists the discovery itself was fortuitous. In 2016, a village headman who also doubled up as a driver, was taking around a team of University of Kerala archaeology students when he showed them the site.

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It was a mere 300m (985 feet) from Khatiya, a tiny village of 400 people, who grew groundnut, cotton and castor on rainfed farms for a living. Some of their farms even abutted the graveyard.

"After rains we would see bits of pottery and stuff coming to the surface. Some people would say there were ghosts here. But we had no idea that we were living next door to such a big graveyard," said Narayan Bhai Jajani, the former headman.

The graves have sandstone-lined burial shafts that point in different directions

"Now every year we have scientists from all over the world visiting our village and trying to find out more about the people who were buried here."

What secrets do the latest graves in Gujarat hold? Who were the people who were interred here?

The sheer number of burials in one location raises questions about the significance of this burial ground. Did it serve as a communal resting place for a cluster of nearby settlements, or does it hint at the existence of a larger settlement?

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Moreover, could it have functioned as a sacred cemetery for nomadic travellers, considering that the closest source of lapis lazuli found in these graves likely traces back to distant Afghanistan? Or could it have served as a "secondary" burial site, where bones from the deceased were interred separately?

"We still don't know. We haven't found a settlement in the neighbourhood yet. We are still digging," says Abhayan GS, an archaeologist at the University of Kerala.

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Mr Kenoyer says he's confident that "there must be some settlements that relate to the cemetery, but they are probably lying beneath modern habitations or so far undiscovered". That the burials were made with well-defined stone walls suggests that the people were familiar with building with stone, and such stone buildings and walled settlements are to be found between 19-30km (11-18 miles) from the cemetery.

More chemical studies and DNA testing of the human remains will tell us more about some of the earliest Indians who lived and died here.

Mysteries about the Indus civilisation endure: the writing, for example, has still not been deciphered. This winter, scientists plan to excavate a site north of the cemetery near Khatiya aiming to uncover a potential settlement. If they find one, one part of the puzzle will be solved. If they don't, they will continue to dig. "Someday, hopefully sooner than later, we will have some answers," says Mr Rajesh.