New Presentation: Harappan Burial Sites of India: Recent Research Trends

The concluding remarks in that picture , are interesting .  They speak of Neolithic genetic exchange,  from Iranian plateau via trade . That almost certainly is of 4500-3800 BC period , as recorded in archaeology. The second which they link with trade, in the 1st millennium BC, also has archaeological record. But I think rather trade , migration is the way to see it . I am confident , that the first genetic exchange/migration is related to the arrival of IE's.

Harappan civilization flourished mainly in northwestern province of Indian subcontinent, roughly between 4000 to 1500 BCE. There are about more than fifty burial sites of the Harappa Civilization discovered so far. Lothal, Kalibangan, Rupar, Rakhigarhi, Farmana, Sanauli etc are major sites yielding the remains of Harappan burial.
Until the early 1980’s,the study of human skeletal were primarily focused to answer specific questions pertaining to establishing the ethnic or racial identity of the concerned population and was used primarily to complement archaeological hypotheses of cultural migration or diffusion. Recently, however, efforts are made to study diet, health and composition of Harappan population. Some of these issues are tackled by using Stable Isotope and DNA analyses. The aim of present paper is give overview of so far research done on the Harappan burials and to focus on latest scientific research carried out on Harappan burial studies.

Yog.

UPDATE : A new related post has appeared, It seems to be yet another modification of abstract , see here  :

[New Presentation] 24th Federation Meeting of Korean Basic Medical Scientists 2016

     Harappan Burial Sites in India: A Review Based On the Latest  Anthropological Research Approaches 

          Astha Dibyopama1, Vasant Shinde1, Dong Hoon Shin2 and Nilesh P. Jadhav1

1Department of Archaeology, Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, India
2Department of Anatomy, Institute of Forensic Science, Seoul National University, Korea

Burial is one of the important evidence to know about our ancestors. Harappan civilization flourished mainly in northwestern province of Indian subcontinent, roughly from between 4000 to 1500 BCE. There are about more than fifty burial sites of the Harappa Civilization discovered so far most of them belonging to a period between 2500-1500 BCE. Lothal, Kalibangan, Rupar, Rakhigarhi, Farmana, Tarkhanwala Dera, Sanauli, Bedwa, Puthi Seman, Bhorgarh, etc. are major sites yielding the remains of Harappan burial. Until the early 1980’s, the study of human skeletal were primarily focused to answer specific questions pertaining to establishing the ethnic or racial identity of the concerned population and was used primarily to complement archaeological hypotheses of cultural migration or diffusion. Recently, however, efforts are shifted to anthropological studies on diet, health and composition of Harappan population. Some of these issues are undertaken by high-end using Stable Isotope and DNA analyses. We intend in this presentation is to focus how these scientific methods which are freshly applied in Harappan burial research are fairly valuable for reconstruction of a variety of aspects of Harappan civilization.

Keywords: Harappan Civilization, Burial sites, Human skeletal remains, Stable Isotope, DNA study

See also :

Rakhigarhi more important than Mohenjo Daro: Data

Upcoming Paper on Sindhu-Sarasvati Valley Civilization

Rakhigarhi: Indian town could unlock mystery of Indus civilisation