Relevance: Mains: G.S paper: 1 Art and Culture
In news:
- A study of DNA from skeletal remains excavated from the Harappan cementery at Rakhigarhi throws light on the Indus Valley Civilisation.
Key findings of the Study:
- The researchers who conducted the study contend that the theory of the Harappans having Steppe pastoral or ancient Iranian farmer ancestry thus stands refuted.
- The finding also negates the hypothesis about mass migration during Harappan times from outside South Asia.
- Hunter-gatherers of South Asia had an independent origin.
- They do not contain genome from either the Steppe region or ancient Iranian farmers.
- Same hunter-gatherer communities developed into agricultural communities and formed the Harappan civilisation.
- There was a movement of people from east to west as the Harappan people’s presence is evident at sites like Gonur in Turkmenistan and Sahr-i-Sokhta in Iran.
- In Europe, ancient-DNA studies have shown that agriculture tended to spread through an influx of people with ancestry in Anatolia, in modern day Turkey.
- Iranian-related ancestry in South Asians comes from a lineage that separated from ancient Iranian farmers and hunter-gatherers before those groups split from each other, nearly 9,000 years ago.
- Farming in South Asia was not due to the movement of people from the farming cultures of the west and that local foragers adopted it.
Additional Information:
Indus Valley Civilization:
- Introduction:
- The Indus Valley Civilization was established around 3300 BC. It flourished between 2700 BC and 1900 BC (Mature Indus Valley Civilization). It started declining around 1900 BC and disappeared around 1400 BC.
- This is also called Harappan Civilization after the first city to be excavated, Harappa (Punjab, Pakistan).
- Pre-Harappan civilization has been found at Mehrgarh, Pakistan which shows the first evidence of cotton cultivation.