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High in the Indian part of the Himalayas, a distant lake nestled in a snow-capped valley is covered in human skeletons.
Roopkund Lake is 5,029 meters above sea level at the foot of a steep slope in Trisul, one of India’s tallest mountains, in the state of Uttarakhand.
Human remains are scattered on and under the ice in “Skeleton Lake”, discovered by a British patrol in 1942. Anthropologists and other scientists have studied them for more than half a century.
The lake has attracted researchers and curious visitors for years. Depending on the season, the lake, which remains frozen most of the year, expands or shrinks.
It is only when the snow melts that the skeletons are visible, some with meat still well preserved. To date, the bone remains of 600 to 800 individuals. The Indian government promotes it in tourist brochures as “Lake of Mystery”.
Scientists have been asking the same questions for over half a century: Who were these people? when did they die? how did they die? Where do they come from?
Different theories
An old theory associates the remains with an Indian king, his wife and his attendants, all killed in a snowstorm 870 years ago.
Another hypothesis suggests that some of the remains belong to Indian soldiers who tried to invade Tibet in 1841 and they were rejected. More than 70 of them were forced to find a way home through the Himalayas and succumbed on the journey.
And a third suggests that it could be a “graveyard“Where the victims of an epidemic were buried.
In the villages of the region, there is a popular song that tells of how the goddess Nanda Devi created a “hard as iron” hailstorm that killed everyone who tried to cross the lake. Nada Devi is the second highest mountain in India, worshiped as a goddess
New discoveries
Early studies of the skeletons showed that most of those who perished were tall, “above average.”
Most were also middle-aged adults, between 35 and 40 years old. There were no children. Some were older women. All were generally in good health. It is assumed that all the skeletons belong to a single group of people who died in a single disastrous incident in the 9th century.
The latest study, conducted over 5 years by 28 scientists from 16 institutions in India, the United States and Germany, found that all of these findings they can be wrong.
The authors genetically analyzed and performed carbon dating tests on 38 bodies, including those of 15 women, and some of them were found to be around 1,200 years old.
They discovered that the bodies were genetically diverse and that some had died up to 1,000 years later than others who were there.
“This radically changes any explanation based on a single catastrophic event,” said Eadaoin Harney, lead author of the study and a doctoral student at Harvard University.
“It is not yet known what happened at Roopkund Lake, but now we can be sure that the deaths of these people cannot be explained as the result of a single event “.
But what was perhaps most striking was that genetic studies revealed that the dead are a heterogeneous group.
One group of them showed genetic similarities with current inhabitants of Southeast Asia, while another turned out to be “closely related” to current Europeans, especially with inhabitants of the island of Crete in Greece.
In addition, people from South Asia “do not seem to belong to the same population”.
“Some show a legacy that would be more prevalent in groups on the northern subcontinent,” says Harney.
So, did these diverse people come to the lake in small groups over a period of several hundred years? Did some die in a single event?
No weapons or products that could be sold were found on the site. The lake is not in the middle of any trade route. Genetic studies have found no trace of ancient pathogens to support the thesis that it is a disease that caused death.
A pilgrimage that passes by the lake might explain why people have traveled to this region. Studies have found no credible evidence of pilgrimages to the area until the late 19th century, but inscriptions in local temples date to the 8th or 20th, suggesting “potential earlier origins.”
Were they pilgrims?
Scientists therefore believe that some of the bodies at the site are the result of “massive death during an event related to the pilgrimage.”
But how do the people of the eastern Mediterranean end up in a secluded lake on India’s highest mountain? It seems unlikely that all of these people from Europe will come to Roopkund to participate in a Hindu pilgrimage.
Or was it perhaps a genetically isolated population that had lived in the area for generations? “We’re always looking for answers,” says Harney.
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