SCIENTISTS claim to have found a large burial site in India belonging to the Indus civilisation. They believe the graves might hold clues about how the people of the Sub-continent lived and died in ancient times, according to a BBC report.

The site lies near a remote village in the thinly populated Kutch region, in India’s Gujarat state and not far from the border with Pakistan.

“When we began digging, we thought it was an ancient settlement. Within a week, we realised it was a cemetery,” Rajesh SV, an archaeologist with the University of Kerala, said.

Researchers estimate the 40-acre site contains at least 500 graves, some 200 of which have been excavated.

The Indus civilisation was at its peak about 5,300 years ago in present-day Pakistan and north-west India. In a century since the civilisation’s discovery, resear­chers have found up to 2,000 sites in the two countries.

Scientists reckon the massive burial ground near Gujarat’s Khatiya village may be the largest “pre-urban” cemetery of the civilisation discovered so far.

They think it was in use for about 500 years, spanning from 3200BC to 2600BC, making the oldest graves almost 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.

‘Mystery couple’

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. Therefore, it 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,” said Prof Chase.

Earlier excavations of Indus sites in Punjab offer some clues about the burial practices of the Indus people. Early civilisation thrived without river

The funerals were unostentatious, unlike those of the elite 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 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. It was a mere 300 metres 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.

“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.”

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2023