Dataset Information

Oxygen isotope in archaeological bioapatites from India: Implications to climate change and decline of Bronze Age Harappan civilization.

ABSTRACT: The antiquity and decline of the Bronze Age Harappan civilization in the Indus-Ghaggar-Hakra river valleys is an enigma in archaeology. Weakening of the monsoon after ~5?ka BP (and droughts throughout the Asia) is a strong contender for the Harappan collapse, although controversy exists about the synchroneity of climate change and collapse of civilization. One reason for this controversy is lack of a continuous record of cultural levels and palaeomonsoon change in close proximity. We report a high resolution oxygen isotope (?(18)O) record of animal teeth-bone phosphates from an archaeological trench itself at Bhirrana, NW India, preserving all cultural levels of this civilization. Bhirrana was part of a high concentration of settlements along the dried up mythical Vedic river valley 'Saraswati', an extension of Ghaggar river in the Thar desert. Isotope and archaeological data suggest that the pre-Harappans started inhabiting this area along the mighty Ghaggar-Hakra rivers fed by intensified monsoon from 9 to 7?ka BP. The monsoon monotonically declined after 7?ka yet the settlements continued to survive from early to mature Harappan time. Our study suggests that other cause like change in subsistence strategy by shifting crop patterns rather than climate change was responsible for Harappan collapse.

SUBMITTER: Sarkar A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4879637 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Oxygen isotope in archaeological bioapatites from India: Implications to climate change and decline of Bronze Age Harappan civilization.

Sarkar Anindya A Mukherjee Arati Deshpande AD Bera M K MK Das B B Juyal Navin N Morthekai P P Deshpande R D RD Shinde V S VS Rao L S LS

Scientific reports 20160525

The antiquity and decline of the Bronze Age Harappan civilization in the Indus-Ghaggar-Hakra river valleys is an enigma in archaeology. Weakening of the monsoon after ~5 ka BP (and droughts throughout the Asia) is a strong contender for the Harappan collapse, although controversy exists about the synchroneity of climate change and collapse of civilization. One reason for this controversy is lack of a continuous record of cultural levels and palaeomonsoon change in close proximity. We report a hi ...[more]

PMID: 27222033

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Project description:European Bronze Age societies are generally characterised by increased mobility and the application of isotopic methods to archaeology has allowed the rate and range of human travels to be quantified. However, little is known about the mobility of the people inhabiting East-Central Europe in the late Early and Middle Bronze Age (1950-1250 BC) whose primary subsistence strategy was herding supported by crop cultivation. This paper presents the results of strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and oxygen (δ18O) isotope analyses in the enamel of people buried in collective graves at the cemeteries in Gustorzyn and Żerniki Górne. These sites are located in Kujawy and the Nida Basin, a lowland and an upland region with clearly different environmental conditions, respectively. Both sites are classified as belonging to the Trzciniec cultural circle and were used between 16th and 13th centuries BC. Among the 34 examined individuals only an adult female from Gustorzyn can be assessed as non-local based on both 87Sr/86Sr and δ18O signatures in her first molar. This may indicate the practice of exogamy in the studied population but more generally corresponds with the hypothesis of limited mobility within these societies, as has previously been inferred from archaeological evidence, anthropological analysis, and stable isotope-based diet reconstruction. New and existing data evaluated in this paper show that the 87Sr/86Sr variability in the natural environment of both regions is relatively high, allowing the tracking of short-range human mobility. A series of oxygen isotope analyses (conducted for all but one individuals studied with strontium isotopes) indicates that δ18O ratios measured in phosphate are in agreement with the predicted modern oxygen isotope precipitation values, and that this method is useful in detecting travels over larger distances. The challenges of using both 87Sr/86Sr and δ18O isotopic systems in provenance studies in the glacial landscapes of temperate Europe are also discussed.

Dataset Information

Oxygen isotope in archaeological bioapatites from India: Implications to climate change and decline of Bronze Age Harappan civilization.

Publications

Oxygen isotope in archaeological bioapatites from India: Implications to climate change and decline of Bronze Age Harappan civilization.

Similar Datasets

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