Bones found near India’s shore; believed to be linked to ancient Greece

Bones were discovered at an altitude of approximately 5,000 meters in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, in the Himalayan Mountains.

Researchers discovered two piles of skeletons on the shores of Roopkund Lake in the North of India and one of the skeletons is believed to be linked to ancient Greece.

After discovering the bones the archeologists performed several analyses, including ancient DNA, stable isotope dietary reconstruction, radiocarbon dating and osteological examination of the bones.

The bones are dated back between 1600 and 1900 AD.

After examining the bones they found out that 13 out of 14 remains had the same genotypes to the people who are currently living in the mainland of Greece and Crete.

The results were published in the scientific journal Nature. The result showed that the dead individuals were healthy until the time of their death but the reason of death has not been found out yet.

The other bones were also examined from the pile of bones and the researchers found out that the dead person had similarities with the people of South Asia mainly the people of Pakistan and India.

It is believed that the bones date back to 800 AD.Ayush Naik the Co-senior Author of the Max Plank Institute for the Science of Human History said, “The individual belonging to Indian-related group had highly variable diets, showing reliance on C3 and C4 foods derived food sources. These findings are consistent with the genetic evidence that they belonged to a variety of socioeconomic groups in South Asia”.

But it is yet to be found out why this particular person from Greece was staying here at that particular time and why were they lying close to each other at the time of death.

“It is not clear what brought these individuals here; to Roopkund Lake and why they died here. But we hope that we can find out that answer to these questions”, said Senior Niraj Rai from the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences in Lucknow, India.

Let’s not forget that the Greeks invaded several times. It started with Alexander the Great, who launched his army on India and invaded Punjab in 327 B.C.E

. The Greeks also came to India before the Common Era and it flourished trade between the two, most importantly silk, spices, and gold.