Methodological issues in the Indo-European debate

The Indo-European debate has been going on for a century and a half. Initially confined to linguistics, race-basedanthropology and comparative mythology, it soon extended to archaeology, especially with the discovery of the Harappancivilization, and peripheral disciplines such as agriculture, archaeometallurgy or archaeoastronomy. The latest entrant in thefield, archaeogenetics, is currently all but claiming that it has finally laid to rest the whole issue of a hypothetical migrationof Indo-Aryan speakers to the Indian subcontinent in the second millennium BCE. This paper questions the finality of thisclaim by pointing to inherent limitations, methodological issues and occasional biases in current studies as well as in theinterpretation of archaeological evidence.

Ancient Indian history: What do we know and how?

When and where was the Rigveda (Rv) composed? How are the Vedic people related to the vast Harappan archaeologicaltradition? These quintessential questions have no direct answers. At our current level of understanding, archaeology andsacred texts constitute two distinct streams which do not intersect. We must therefore collate evidence from differentsources and try to produce a synthesis. It is particularly important to take note of archaeological evidence from Central Asia,because it has not received the attention it deserves. What is well known in science must be kept in mind in the case ofhistory also. A theory to be valid must explain each and every fact (known at present or to be known in future) in a selfconsistent manner. Conversely, even if there is one piece of evidence that a theory is unable to explain, it should be put onhold, modified or even rejected.

A young couple's grave found in the Rakhigarhi cemetery of the Harappan Civilization / 대한해부학회지

The Harappan Civilization, one of the earliest complex societies in the world, flourished on the Indian subcontinent. Although many additional Harappan settlements and cemeteries have been discovered and investigated, no coupled burials at Harappan cemeteries have been reported to date. In 2013–2016, we excavated the cemetery of the Rakhigarhi site (Haryana), the largest city of the Harappan Civilization. At the site, we found a grave that turned out to be a coupled (joint) burial of the primary type. This report is the first anthropologically confirmed case of coupled burial from a Harappan cemetery.

Human Skeletal Remains from Ancient Burial Sites in India: With Special Reference to Harappan Civilization / 체질인류학회지

Harappan Civilization is well known for highly sophisticated urban society, having been flourished in extensive regions of northwestern part of Pakistan and northeastern part of Afghanistan as its heyday around 4500 years ago. Most archaeologists agree on the periodization of this civilization as three different phases (Early, Mature and Late), which represent its cultural process of origin, development and decline. From the Harappan sites, one can note that there were about more than fifty burial sites discovered so far related with the civilization. In this article, we are trying to introduce the brief picture of the Harappan burials from the archaeological as well as anthropological perspectives.