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Ancient lovers found in Indian burial site mystify and intrigue archaeologists

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Ancient lovers found in Indian burial site mystify and intrigue archaeologists


By Tara John and Subhrangshu Pratim Sarmah, CNN

Updated 15:51 PM PHT Thu, January 10, 2019

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(CNN) — Between 4500 and 2500 BC, the bodies of a couple, believed to be married, were placed carefully side by side in an ancient burial site of the Harappans, one of the world's earliest civilizations.

Thousands of years later, in 2013, a team of Indian and South Korean researchers began excavation work in the necropolis now located in Rakhigarhi -- around 100 miles northwest of India's capital, New Delhi -- in a bid to extract DNA from the skeletal remains.

They discovered dozens of skeletons during the excavation process, which ended three years later. Their finds included the couple, the scientists said in a study published in the peer-reviewed ACB Journal of Anatomy. They believe this is the first Harappan pair confirmed to have been buried together.

"Observation revealed that they died at the same time and they were buried at the same time," said Vasant Shinde, the archeologist who led the team.

The skull of the man was found facing the body of his female partner. "They were intimately placed in the burial," Shinde said. "So we thought maybe they shared [a] very intimate relationship" and were probably husband and wife.

Shrouded in history
Shinde added that the couple must have been married "because, had they been in an illicit relationship, the community would not have [given] them a proper ceremonial burial."

But one major mystery remained: How did these Bronze Age lovebirds die at the same time? Were they wiped out in a plague? Killed in a ritual death? Or did this star-crossed pair take their own lives?

The archeologists couldn't find any trace of disease, nor were there any injury marks to the skeletons that would have suggested they were killed. "Our guess is that probably they may have died of heart failure," Shinde said, before adding that this was just speculation.

In the paper, the scientists ruled out the possibility that the woman, believed to be in her early 20s, took her own life shortly after the death of her husband, who was between 35 and 40 years old.

"The couple's burial ... should not be considered to have been the outcome of any specific funeral customs commonly performed at that time," the study said, referring to a ritual in which a wife would kill herself after the death of her husband. "Rather, it is more plausible that two individuals died at or almost at the same time, and that therefore, they had been buried together in the same grave."

The researchers said more studies of Harappan graves are needed to solve the mystery, "as joint burials are important for inferring historical family structures and the broader society they represent."

Fascination and debate
Archaeologists also found pots in the grave, which would have contained food and water: grave offerings for the dead. One agate bead, "possibly a part of a necklace, was found near the right collar bone" of the male skeleton, they said.

Couple burials like the one in Rakhigarhi have long been a source of fascination and fierce speculation, the scientists added.

In 2007, archeologists excavating a Neolithic burial site in Italy found a couple locked in a tender embrace. It is still a matter of debate how the Lovers of Valdaro, as they came to be known, died.

The same is true of another case in Siberia, where the couple were found facing each other and holding hands.

For now, the team in India will continue extracting DNA from their finds. "Our ultimate goal is to understand the social composition of [the] human population there" and the relationship between the Harappan and contemporary population, Shinde said.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Ancient lovers found in Indian burial site mystify and intrigue archaeologists."

@Nilgiri @Joe Shearer @Peshwa @scorpionx @MilSpec @Levina @Kashmiri Pandit @Śakra @Soumitra @Dash @HariPrasad @suresh1773 @KapitaanAli @XiNiX @OsmanAli98 @VCheng @AyanRay @jaiind @niaz @jamahir @Tshering22 @padamchen @Indos @India Pakistan @Taimur Khurram @Talwar e Pakistan @Zarvan @Zibago @Dewaneh @Novice09 @Sam. @GHALIB @Jackdaws @Tom M @Sheena1980 @placemat @VCheng @GeraltofRivia @CyclopS @amardeep mishra @Skull and Bones @Tea addict @Syama Ayas @KAL-EL @Kevrai @MultaniGuy
 
Ancient lovers found in Indian burial site mystify and intrigue archaeologists


By Tara John and Subhrangshu Pratim Sarmah, CNN

Updated 15:51 PM PHT Thu, January 10, 2019

AddThis Sharing Buttons
Share to Facebook338Share to TwitterShare to PrintShare to EmailShare to More
World%20news.png

(CNN) — Between 4500 and 2500 BC, the bodies of a couple, believed to be married, were placed carefully side by side in an ancient burial site of the Harappans, one of the world's earliest civilizations.

Thousands of years later, in 2013, a team of Indian and South Korean researchers began excavation work in the necropolis now located in Rakhigarhi -- around 100 miles northwest of India's capital, New Delhi -- in a bid to extract DNA from the skeletal remains.

They discovered dozens of skeletons during the excavation process, which ended three years later. Their finds included the couple, the scientists said in a study published in the peer-reviewed ACB Journal of Anatomy. They believe this is the first Harappan pair confirmed to have been buried together.

"Observation revealed that they died at the same time and they were buried at the same time," said Vasant Shinde, the archeologist who led the team.

The skull of the man was found facing the body of his female partner. "They were intimately placed in the burial," Shinde said. "So we thought maybe they shared [a] very intimate relationship" and were probably husband and wife.

Shrouded in history
Shinde added that the couple must have been married "because, had they been in an illicit relationship, the community would not have [given] them a proper ceremonial burial."

But one major mystery remained: How did these Bronze Age lovebirds die at the same time? Were they wiped out in a plague? Killed in a ritual death? Or did this star-crossed pair take their own lives?

The archeologists couldn't find any trace of disease, nor were there any injury marks to the skeletons that would have suggested they were killed. "Our guess is that probably they may have died of heart failure," Shinde said, before adding that this was just speculation.

In the paper, the scientists ruled out the possibility that the woman, believed to be in her early 20s, took her own life shortly after the death of her husband, who was between 35 and 40 years old.

"The couple's burial ... should not be considered to have been the outcome of any specific funeral customs commonly performed at that time," the study said, referring to a ritual in which a wife would kill herself after the death of her husband. "Rather, it is more plausible that two individuals died at or almost at the same time, and that therefore, they had been buried together in the same grave."

The researchers said more studies of Harappan graves are needed to solve the mystery, "as joint burials are important for inferring historical family structures and the broader society they represent."

Fascination and debate
Archaeologists also found pots in the grave, which would have contained food and water: grave offerings for the dead. One agate bead, "possibly a part of a necklace, was found near the right collar bone" of the male skeleton, they said.

Couple burials like the one in Rakhigarhi have long been a source of fascination and fierce speculation, the scientists added.

In 2007, archeologists excavating a Neolithic burial site in Italy found a couple locked in a tender embrace. It is still a matter of debate how the Lovers of Valdaro, as they came to be known, died.

The same is true of another case in Siberia, where the couple were found facing each other and holding hands.

For now, the team in India will continue extracting DNA from their finds. "Our ultimate goal is to understand the social composition of [the] human population there" and the relationship between the Harappan and contemporary population, Shinde said.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Ancient lovers found in Indian burial site mystify and intrigue archaeologists."

@Nilgiri @Joe Shearer @Peshwa @scorpionx @MilSpec @Levina @Kashmiri Pandit @Śakra @Soumitra @Dash @HariPrasad @suresh1773 @KapitaanAli @XiNiX @OsmanAli98 @VCheng @AyanRay @jaiind @niaz @jamahir @Tshering22 @padamchen @Indos @India Pakistan @Taimur Khurram @Talwar e Pakistan @Zarvan @Zibago @Dewaneh @Novice09 @Sam. @GHALIB @Jackdaws @Tom M @Sheena1980 @placemat @VCheng @GeraltofRivia @CyclopS @amardeep mishra @Skull and Bones @Tea addict @Syama Ayas @KAL-EL @Kevrai @MultaniGuy
Most likely the husband died, and then they killed the wife to bury them together. They can just slit the throat. The culture of widow burning might have originated here.
 
Just a tap on the head would do. Suffocation would take care of the rest. Scummy black people don't deserve anything more.
Well if you tap the head, there is damage to the skull, if you slit the throat and drain the blood, it will still be intact, hence you won't find damage after thousand of years.
 
'
Too much thought spent by the master race on black vermin.
Chinese are not as racist as the Aryans. Just stating a hypothesis on Hindu practices, it's not a coincidence you keep on finding couple's buried together in India. Some Kings in China do have sacrificial burials but you don't see these in common folks. So in India it's must have been some sort of religious custom instead of a one off megalomaniac king.
 
I live in Haryana and i read many reports on rakhigarhi sites . Its completely belongs to south indian people . My qstn is where we are from rajput/jat :(:(:(:hitwall::hitwall::mamba::mad::(
 
I live in Haryana and i read many reports on rakhigarhi sites . Its completely belongs to south indian people . My qstn is where we are from rajput/jat :(:(:(:hitwall::hitwall::mamba::mad::(
The ASI in the DNA.

But we can't really split the ASI and ANI in the DNA for claiming Rakhigarhi sites. :)

Chinese are not as racist as the Aryans. Just stating a hypothesis on Hindu practices, it's not a coincidence you keep on finding couple's buried together in India. Some Kings in China do have sacrificial burials but you don't see these in common folks. So in India it's must have been some sort of religious custom instead of a one off megalomaniac king.
I didn't knew there was a racism meter with which you compared the two.

It's infact a coincidence that a man and a women are buried together, we can make hundreds of hypothesis like, both died of CO poisoning, drowned, or a crazy coincidence both having myocardial infarction together when mating. Or some guy caught wife cheating with his best friend and kills them both with stab wound. Who knows, the people felt sympathetic over the situation and decides to bury them together. But when some archaeologists make theories, they will spin stories. But they are yet to find something similar in other sites.
 
Chinese are not as racist as the Aryans. Just stating a hypothesis on Hindu practices, it's not a coincidence you keep on finding couple's buried together in India. Some Kings in China do have sacrificial burials but you don't see these in common folks. So in India it's must have been some sort of religious custom instead of a one off megalomaniac king.

If you are so intent on disproving your own statement, it is difficult to take you seriously. There is nothing to indicate that there was not a pair of deaths close together; no other graves of this sort were found, and to have this nauseating and prurient suggestion that the woman was sacrificed ritually shows only a mind that can find evil and cruelty in a doubtful sample of one.

I hope by the same token, the same sample of one, there will be no objection to considering you a representative of Han patriotism, and its mentality.
 
But we are so different . My ancestors used to speak sanskrit . Sanskrit &haryanvi completely different from compare to Dravidian languages . And How did we get sanskrit . :wacko::wacko::wacko:
 
Nah. Filthy Indians probably just buried her alive. Why bother to take the trouble of slitting her throat?

It would be funny to set "han patriot" knee-jerk idiotic comments against the IVC revisionists....I mean wouldn't this couple technically be Pakistani rather than Indian? :P

Going off-topic but I hate it when someone uses "miles", "gallons" and "peer-reviewed" !!

If you have problem with miles and gallons. You really shouldn't fly in an aircraft these days. Pretty much all of them (save rolls royce) have engines that are designed (master drawings and detailed drawings) purely with imperial units (which I am more used to and comfortable with tbh).
 
Off-topic but whenever I hear about couples burials and shit I always remember this greentext and die laughing ;)

safbhry4lig11.png
 

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