Death during civilizational collapse: Harappa's cemeteries indicate an ugly decline

 "Let us define 'collapse of a society' as a local drastic decrease in human population numbers and/or in political, economic, or social complexity." ~ Jared Diamond, Ecological Collapses of Pre-industrial Societies, 2000 Tanner Lecture

A Harappa's males skull exhibitng signs of traumatic injury. Photograph courtesy Gwen Robbins Schug

    If we accept Jared Diamond's definition of pre-industrial societal collapse provided above, then the Harappan culture of the Indus Valley certainly underwent something very much like this experience  around 1900 B.C. The collapse of this civilization has mystified archaeologists and historians at least  since the city of Harappa was unearthed in the 1920s, and for many the best explanation for the ancient Indus civilization's disappearance was an Aryan invasion that effectively wiped it out. 

Major cities of the Indus Valley Civilization.  Source: Wikipedia

 An invasion by a hostile force seemed the most plausible explanation for the fall of Harappan society largely because initial indications were that it was an incredibly peaceful and egalitarian civilization.  The more this view of life in the Indus Valley between 2,550 and about 1,900 B.C. became entrenched, the harder it was to imagine its demise could have been the result of anything other than hostile outside forces.  Even when skeletons around cities like Harappa exhibiting signs of violent injury were unearthed, these were frequently taken as indications of massacres consistent with the invasion hypothesis rather than as possible evidence that Harappans had begun maiming and killing each other.

     This all changed with a recent analysis of materials collected over the course of 26 field seasons going back to 1929 from three burial sites located outside of the ancient city of Harappa. (Schug et al., 2012) This examination revealed that, contrary to popular opinion, internal civil strife and not invading armies were the norm as Harappan society began its descent toward ultimate oblivion.  The three sites are known as Cemetery R-37, Cemetery H (Stratum II and I), and Area G respectively.  Cemetery R-27 is the earliest of the three, and the archaeological evidence recovered from it confirms the widely held view that Harappan culture was, during its peak, remarkably tranquil.  Cemetery R-37 was used over the course of Harappa's rise and throughout its rapid growth phase from 2200 - 1900 B.C.  During this period the city reached a population of 80,000 or more.  Chemical analyses done on the teeth of individuals found buried in R-37 or sites like it also show that "newcomers" were arriving in the city from all over the "Indus area, perhaps for trade" at this time. Men were also likely coming to the city to find opportunities to marry Harappan women. National Geographic reports archaeologist  Mark Kenoyer has found that "Many of the outsiders, surprisingly, are men buried near women native to Harappa."  This indicates Harappan women likely enjoyed an uncommon degree of influence in the Harappan world.  Cemetery R-37 also points to a significant level of prosperity.  Graves found there contained "pottery; shell jewelry; beads of semi-precious stones, gold, and steatite; toilet objects such as mirrors, shell spoons, and small containers; and other grave goods."  Of the skeletons examined that were recovered from Cemetery R-37, all formerly belonged to individuals that were "relatively healthy" with the most common condition that was clearly visible being degenerative joint disease, a condition associated with aging. 

Cemetery H, however, tells another story.  As Harappa began its decline (1900 - 1700 B.C.) grave goods largely disappear with only ceramics showing up among the dead.   Area G, also thought to date to the same period, does contain an ossuary with "goblets, vases, and offering dishes", but these are found with 20 human crania and mandibles, many of them with signs of significant traumatic injury.  (Schug et al, 2012)

At this point, Harappa begins not to look at all like its old peaceful self. "The skull of a child between four and six years old" is found that has been "cracked and crushed by blows from a club-like weapon. An adult woman was beaten so badly...that her skull caved in.  A middle-aged man had a broken nose as well as damage to his forehead inflicted by a sharp-edged, heavy implement." With half the skeletons examined that date from this period showing signs of violence, Schug et al. find that a culture that was by just about every historical as well as mythical account, not to mention all available archaeological evidence, once quite peaceful quickly reached levels of violence considered high even by ancient urban standards.  The violence is especially extreme, however, "when considered in the South Asian context."  Head injuries have "not been frequently observed" at other burial sites "across the subcontinent", but around 1900 B.C. in Harappa they suddenly begin turning up at "the highest recorded rate in the prehistoric period thus far recorded."  (Schug et al, 2012)

What happened to turn a society with a legendary reputation for peace, a reputation supported by the archaeological record, into a kind of ancient version of the Wild West? Here the archeaology of death may provide a lesson the contemporary world would be wise to heed.  Regional climate change appears to be largely responsible for Harappa's shifting fortunes. As monsoonal patterns shifted and a once abundant river disappeared, Harappa began to empty out. Unfortunately for those left behind, they didn't enjoy nearly the resources their ancestors once had. Agricultural surpluses became chronic shortages.  Dr. Gwen Robbin Schug leaves us with this cautionary message: "Human populations in semi-arid regions of the world, including South Asia, currently face disproportionate impacts from global climate change.  The evidence from Harappa offers insights into how social and biological challenges impacted past societies facing rapid population growth, climate change and environmental degradation.  Unfortunately, in this case, increasing levels of violence and disease accompanied massive levels of migration and resource stress and disproportionate impacts were felt by the most vulnerable members of society."

Sources:

Schug, Gwen Robbins, Kelsey Gray, V. Mushrif-Tripathy, and A.R. Sankhyan
     2012  A Peaceful Realm? Trauma and Social Differentiation at Harappa.  International

     Journal of Paleopathology, 2, pp. 136-147

Schug, Gwen Robbins, K. Elaine Blevins, Brett Cox, Kelsey Gray, and V. Mushrif-Tripathy     
     2013 Infection, Disease, and Biosocial Processes at the End of the Indus Civilization.  
     PLoS One, 8 (2): e84814 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0084814

"Climate change key to collapse of ancient Indus civilization", CBC News, June 25, 2012

"Surprising Discoveries From the Indus Civilization: Archaeologists say the Indus civilization wasn’t nearly as peaceful as popularly thought", National Geographic Daily News, April 29, 2013

"Early Civilization in the Indus Valley", USHistory.org

"Violence, Infectious Disease and Climate Change Contributed to Indus Civilization Collapse", Science Daily, January 16, 2014

Dying for a mug of Nordic grog

"...honey, bog cranberry, lingonberry, bog myrtle, yarrow, juniper, birch tree resin, and cereals including wheat, barley and/or rye —and sometimes, grape wine imported from southern or central Europe." According to chemical analyses done on the residues on cups and strainers found in graves from Denmark to Sweden, those were the common ingredients of Nordic "grog", a drink that dates back as far as 1500 BC.

Given our own modern taste for beer, wine, ciders and various other alcoholic beverages, we shouldn't find it astonishing that biomolecular archaeologists like Dr. Pat McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology have been finding traces of them on shards of pottery and in the bottoms of ancient cups for years.  From an archaeology of death perspective, however, what are we to make of artifacts such as strainers, wine kits imported from southern Europe, jugs of "grog" or mead, and cups that were clearly used primarily to imbibe these drinks turning up prominently in graves across Scandinavia? 

"Egtved Girl" is thought to have been a priestess. She was buried in a an oak trunk coffin sometime between 1300 and 1500 BC with a birch-bark bucket of grog at her feet.  Credit: National Museum of Denmark

Ancient drink set found in Sweden dating to the 1st century AD.  Imported from Rome, analysis indicates this set was used to make grog. Credit: Nylen and Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm

Nylen and Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm

Nylen and Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm

In the absence of a written record, it's extremely difficult to determine what meaning an artifact found in a grave held either for the individual it was buried with or the culture that produced it and ultimately placed it with the body. Does a knife or sword buried with a body always mean that person was a warrior?  Do remains of a woman found griping a strainer and the association of wine kits with female graves mean women typically made and served drinks like grog? Self images and gender roles are probably factors here, and they can at best only be determined probabilistically. 

However, when it comes to cups and jugs containing grog residue, these have been found in both male and female Scandinavian burial sites . This may have some religious significance.  On the other hand, the presence of these artifacts may simply mean, then as now, people appreciated the socially lubricating qualities of a good drink and memories of the dead were strongly linked to social gatherings where grog played a central role.  As Freud supposedly said, "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar".  Since the people burying these cups, jugs, and buckets along with their dead didn't write down why they were doing it, we will likely never know exactly what was going through their minds at the time.

Wine was occasionally imported from the south to add to grog as an extra ingredient.  It was probably as a consequence of this commerce that at least a few Greeks and Romans became familiar with the drink.  It doesn't appear they were too concerned with any, to them, unusual religious or other cultural roles grog played for their northern European neighbors.  However, they did notice its taste and they didn't consider it very savory.  The blog Live Science points out the criticism of these Greeks and Romans may provide evidence of the first wine snobs; they thought grog tasted like "barley rotted in water". 

Regardless of what the ancient Greeks and Romans thought, or what grog meant to its primary consumers, you can decide for yourself what you think of the beverage.  Relying in part upon the analyses conducted on containers found in Nordic graves going back as far as 3,500 years, the Deleware based brewery Dogfish Head has created its version of the recipe.  Marketed under the name Kvasir, Dogfish's recreation of Nordic grog is just the latest in its line of ancient brews available for those literally seeking a taste of drinks that frequently inspired our ancestors to take full jars and buckets to the grave with them.  Perhaps in the near future the University of Victoria will be adding an Archaeology of Beer course to the menu as well.

Ancient texts written by Greeks and Romans proved that southern Europeans were among the first wine snobs — these authors dismissed Northern beverages as "barley rotted in water." - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/42559-nordic-grog-ancient-alcoholic-beverage.html#sthash.hDhfsL41.dpuf

Ancient texts written by Greeks and Romans proved that southern Europeans were among the first wine snobs — these authors dismissed Northern beverages as "barley rotted in water." - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/42559-nordic-grog-ancient-alcoholic-beverage.html#sthash.hDhfsL41.dpuf

Ancient texts written by Greeks and Romans proved that southern Europeans were among the first wine snobs — these authors dismissed Northern beverages as "barley rotted in water." - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/42559-nordic-grog-ancient-alcoholic-beverage.html#sthash.hDhfsL41.dpuf

Ancient texts written by Greeks and Romans proved that southern Europeans were among the first wine snobs — these authors dismissed Northern beverages as "barley rotted in water." - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/42559-nordic-grog-ancient-alcoholic-beverage.html#sthash.hDhfsL41.dpuf

Sources:
Live Science, Ancient Nordic Grog Intoxicated the Elite: http://www.livescience.com/42559-nordic-grog-ancient-alcoholic-beverage.html
Live Science images of grog related artifacts uncovered in ancient Nordic graves and elsewhere: http://www.livescience.com/42556-graves-nordic-grog.html

AlphaGalileo, New evidence of "Nordic grog" discovered in Scandinavia: http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=138057&CultureCode=en

Atlantic Monthly, The Archaeology of Beer: Dogfish Head’s ancient, hybrid brews embody a past before ale and wine became separate categories:  http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/01/the-archaeology-of-beer/355732/

Introductory Post

The Death Takes a Field Trip blog is a project initiated as part of the Archaeology of Death course at the University of Victoria.  All posts will be by Craig Axford.  There will be at least one post each week. Posts will be inspired either by discussions taking place in class, readings, or research conducted for the course.

I believe the Archaeology of Death provides a window into culture that few other perspectives can.  Other than birth, death is really the only experience every single one of us ultimately shares, but paradoxically it is also an experience we can't really share except with the living.  The things we do to the dead, the objects we leave in their graves, and the funerary rituals we perform to mark someone's death are manifestations of the way our respective cultures view life as much or more than they are indications of the way we viewed the individual(s) who has died. 

About the author: I am in my final term at the University of Victoria finishing degrees in both anthropology and environmental studies.  My wife and I moved to Victoria from Salt Lake City, Utah in 2010. We hope to remain in British Columbia permanently following my graduation.  Prior to coming to Canada, I worked as program director for an environmental non-profit focused on US National Forest protection, and later as an organizer for the Democratic National Committee (DNC).