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

  • Shinde, Vasant (Department of Archaeology, Deccan College) ;
  • Lee, Hyejin (Institute of Forensic Science, Seoul National University College of Medicine) ;
  • Yadav, Yogesh (Department of Archaeology, Deccan College) ;
  • Waghmare, Pranjali (Department of Archaeology, Deccan College) ;
  • Jadhav, Nilesh (Department of Archaeology, Deccan College) ;
  • Hong, Jong Ha (Institute of Forensic Science, Seoul National University College of Medicine) ;
  • Kim, Yong Jun (Institute of Forensic Science, Seoul National University College of Medicine) ;
  • Shin, Dong Hoon (Institute of Forensic Science, Seoul National University College of Medicine)
  • Received : 2018.04.30
  • Accepted : 2018.06.12
  • Published : 2018.09.30

Abstract

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.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

Supported by : National Geographic Society, National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)

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