PAST UNEARTHED: Archaeologists, geneticists, geologists team up to trace population history
Who were the ancient Indians? Where did they migrate from? What was their ancestry? What was their diet? Which animals had they domesticated and what was the plant and animal life in those days?
Many such questions may be solved with a team of archaeologists and genetic experts launching a project to reconstruct the human population history of India and the larger South Asia region.
The multi-disciplinary 'Reconstructing the population history and domestication patterns in prehistoric India' project will also cover archaeological sites in the subcontinent like Sri Lanka's Rassagala (also called Rajagala with human habitation dating back 15,000 to 20,000 years), and Bali, which has connections with mainland India.
"This is a first-of-its kind project using new research methodology in DNA archaeology. It has immense scope for generating information about these people, their food habits and diseases in those times," said Vasant Shinde, director of National Maritime Heritage Complex and former vice-chancellor of Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute in Pune.
Experts will undertake facial reconstruction if they get complete skull remains, like it has been done at Rakhigarhi, the largest Harappan city.
He added they would study animal and plant DNA and determine when domestication of animals, cultivation and farming began, thus revealing layers of human evolution. The project will cover sites like Inamgaon, Nevasa and Gorewada in Maharashtra and Farmana in Haryana. Launched this year, it involves collaboration between archaeologists, geologists, genetic scientists and other experts.
Shinde said they would test and analyse human, plant and animal DNA from sites where human settlements, and plant and animal remains were found.
"We are reconstructing the population history of South Asia," said Niraj Rai, scientist and group head of the ancient DNA lab at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, adding they would unravel migration, food habits, admixtures and ancestry through this.
"Indians have different sources and gradients of ancestry... [for instance] North Indians share ancestries like Central Asian, Iranian agriculturists, Tibeto-Burman and Pastro-Asiatic. We are trying to trace how these ancestries appeared in modern-day Indian population," he explained, adding this was being done through genetic samples of those who lived during that period.
DNA samples can be compared with that of other communities and ethnic groups in India and abroad using the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology's (CCMB) database to determine the source population and admixture of these people.
The project will be funded by participating institutions like the Deccan College and BSIP with plans to rope in agencies like the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Rai said they were collecting archaeologically important human, animal and plant samples from archaeological sites and museums for retrieving ancient DNA. Results are expected to be published next year onwards. The study will determine where the Indus Valley civilisation people moved after the collapse of their culture, if they migrated to the fertile Gangetic plains or to areas in the Middle East that are today Iran and Iraq.
While Inamgaon (1,700 BC-700BC) is a Harappan era site, Nevasa (1,700-1,000 BC) is a Chalcolithic (early farming) settlement, Farmana (5,000-2,000BC) has early Harappan period habitations and Gorewada (900BC-800BC) near Nagpur is the centre of megalithic-era burials.
Pointing to how the identity of the Megalithic people was a mystery, Shinde said they could compare the DNA of skeletons extracted from Gorewada with that of people in southern states and Vidarbha to trace their ancestry and movement. "Megalithic practices are followed in the North East... (DNA from Megalithic people) can be compared with Gond tribals (in central India who follow Megalithic practices)," said Shinde.
Megalithic burial sites are marked by features like stone circles in Vidarbha and headstones, rock chambers and dolmens in the South.
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