4,000-Year-Old Copper Crown Found in India

Indian archaeologists uncovered a 4,000-year-old copper crown in the village of Chandayan, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh this week, from what they believe was the late Indus Valley civilization.

According to Dr. Rakesh Tewari, the director general of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), this is only the second crown discovered at an Indus Valley site in either India or Pakistan. Earlier, a silver crown was found at another late Indus Valley site in what is now the Fatehabad district of Haryana state in northeast India...

The copper crown, decorated with a Carnelian and a Fiance bead [both precious stones], was found on a skull and exposed by laborers while they extracting clay to make bricks in August. Word of the discovery spread around India, and caught the attention of the ASI, which started excavating the site in early December...

During excavation, Pandey also found animal bones and mud pots at the same excavation depth as the burial site, but about 65 feet away. This suggests that an animal was sacrificed during a funeral ceremony for the person whose remains were found.

According to Pandey, another piece of the same crown, a pelvic bone, and femur of the left leg of the person was unearthed along with 21 earthen pots.

One hundred and fifty feet away from the burial site, archaeologists also dug up a habitation site of the same period and found a compact floor, mud walls, and holes for fence posts.

According to Pandey, the discovery is important because this is the first time evidence of a late Indus Civilization habitation was found so far east... artifacts from the Indus Valley civilization have been uncovered over a span of 930 thousand square miles...

21 posted on 01/05/2015 5:10:26 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)

Keywords aryaninvasion, aryans, harappa, harappan, indusvalley, indusvalleyscript, sorted chrono, duplicates out:

22 posted on 01/05/2015 5:34:42 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)

Thanks. A fascinating “lost” civilization.

When brick kiln workers stumbled upon human skeletal remains at Chandayan village, some 100 km from Delhi, no one had any inkling that it could be the first ever habitation from the later phase of Harappan civilisation to be found in the state. The early Harappan phase lasted from 3300 BC to 2600 BC, the mature phase from 2600 BC to 1900 BC and the late phase from 1900 BC to 1600 BC.

24 posted on 02/02/2015 5:52:08 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)

[ASI] A part of 21 pots found in the burial pit in the late Harappan site of Chandayan, Baghpat district, Uttar Pradesh. These pots including deep bowls, flasks and dishes might have contained cereals, milk, butter etc.. as part of some religious ceremony for the dead.

25 posted on 02/02/2015 5:53:52 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)

Fragments of the crown discovered in Chandayan village of Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat district [Credit: Times of India]

26 posted on 02/02/2015 6:02:45 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)

Fragments of the skull discovered in Chandayan village of Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat district [Credit: Times of India]

27 posted on 02/02/2015 6:04:21 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)

A Harappan-era necklace on display at a museum in Mumbai. Beads of carnelian, a semi-precious stone, are generally associated with the Harappan civilization. However, a crown has never been found in any of the Indus Valley civilization sites [Credit: Sanjay Hadkar/Times of India]

28 posted on 02/02/2015 6:05:21 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)

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