🔆 Rakhigarhi Human Skeletal Remains Handed Over for Advanced Scientific Research
📍 Why in News?
✅ Human skeletal remains excavated from Rakhigarhi (Haryana) have been transferred by ASI to the Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI) for advanced multidisciplinary research.
📍 About Rakhigarhi
✅ Located in Haryana
✅ Largest known settlement of the Indus-Saraswati Civilization
✅ Spread over ~550 hectares
✅ Evidence of Early Harappan to Mature Harappan habitation
✅ Features planned settlements, drainage systems, craft centres, trade networks and burial grounds.
📍 Recent Discovery
✅ Eight burials unearthed at Mound No. 7 during 2025–26 excavations
✅ Three complete human skeletons recovered
✅ Remains shifted to AnSI’s skeletal repository and laboratory in Kolkata.
📍 Scientific Techniques to be Used
✅ Ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis
✅ Stable isotope studies
✅ Osteological assessments
✅ Palaeopathological investigations
✅ Environmental reconstruction.
📍 Expected Findings
✅ Ancestry and genetic history
✅ Migration patterns
✅ Diet and nutrition
✅ Disease prevalence
✅ Human-environment interactions
✅ Health and lifestyle of Harappan populations.
📍 Institutions Involved
✅ Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI)
✅ Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)
✅ Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP)
✅ Banaras Hindu University (BHU)
✅ University College London (UCL).
📍 Significance
✅ Strengthens India’s palaeoanthropological research
✅ Helps reconstruct Harappan population history
✅ Integrates archaeology, genetics, anthropology and environmental sciences
✅ Enhances understanding of one of the world’s earliest urban civilizations.
📍 Prelims Pointers
✅ Rakhigarhi — Haryana
✅ Largest known Indus-Saraswati Civilization site
✅ Excavated by ASI
✅ Human remains to undergo ancient DNA analysis.
Question
Elaborate how can advances in archaeogenetics and palaeoanthropology contribute to understanding the origins, migration patterns and socio-cultural evolution of the Harappan Civilization?
