THE new sunday express MAGAZINE Voices Pushpesh Pant S Vaidhyasubramaniam Ravi Shankar Preeti Shenoy Dinesh Singh mata amritanandamayi Buffet People Wellness Books Food Art & Culture Entertainment May 5 2024 SUNDAY PAGES 12 remains of the day Human remains discovered in Rakhigarhi village, Haryana, are 8,000 years old. This debunks the Aryan invasion theory, which is supposed to have happened between 1,800 and 1,500 years ago Truth Be Retold Archaeology is at its zenith, as digs worldwide excavate hidden truths and make startling discoveries, both in backyards and the Amazon rainforest, thereby rewriting the history of mankind as we know it now. India is not far behind T By ravi shankar he Earth is the library of mankind. For centuries, an obsessive, inquisitive and courageous tribe has been trying to excavate the extensive hoard of knowledge hidden beneath its layers of soil and sand, oceans, forests, rivers and ruins—a tribe called archaeologists. Their purpose is to exhume the debris of millennia, to understand the evolution of man, the rise and fall of civilisations and empires and, in the process, find a common thread between the past and present, and explain why we are as we are now. Their discoveries keep changing previous beliefs about religion, architecture, governance, ecology tools, science, , wars, gender and politics. Finding a piece of stone, a jawbone or molar that existed thousands of millennia ago can be a marker of mankind’s peregrinations, answering the fundamental questions of creation. Who are we really? Where are we from? How did we come to become what we are? What next? They are, at the core, disruptors whose new findings are causing seismic shocks in established circles. ● The Great Migration didn’t start from Africa, it was the reverse: proto-hominins, who lived in parts of Greece and Europe, moved to Africa first. ● Ancient Egyptian tombs may have been used to store radioactive nuclear waste. ● Arabia was a verdant expanse that supported all kinds of life 4,00,000 years ago. The poor Indian politician, who didn’t see his ancestors change from apes to humans, was probably right; he couldn’t have, even if he had lived 3,00,000 years ago in Africa. Humans did not evolve in a linear way The . famous monkey-to-man illustration published by Time-Life in 1965, known as the ‘March of Progress’, did much to embed this perception for generations. Archaeologists have contradicted this theory by analysing bone fragments found recently in digging sites. These conjure up a Frankenstein’s monster: different body parts evolving in different timelines and dimensional scales. Remains of Australopithecus sediba—it walked like a human—which lived around 98 million years ago in South Africa, had a human hand attached to an ape-like arm and an advanced ankle bone connected to a primitive heel. Pre-human hominids (hominids are modern humans, extinct human species and all our immediate ancestors), however, were not as primitive as we think: researchers reconstructed a 4,76,000-year-old log building in Zambia, built more than 2,00,000 years before the Homo sapiens appeared on earth. FOLLOW THE TRAIL A new mind-boggling discovery in Greece is challenging the African migration theory . A team led by Canadian archaeologist David Begun the fossils of an ape, found to have lived in Greece between Eightnine million years ago, possibly belonged to a male from a new species that foretold the arrival of man. Its DNA analysis suggests that humans evolved first in Europe, before moving to Africa, and then divided into two migratory streams recently concluded that the fossils of an ape, which lived in Greece eight-nine million years ago, possibly belonged to a male from a new species. Its DNA analysis suggested that human ancestors may have evolved first in Europe before moving to Africa, and then divided into two migratory streams. The result shatters the classical Darwinian theory; in 1871, he had suggested that all hominins are descended from a gene pool in Africa; or even Europe. To trace the Homo sapiens journey scientists study , two categories: Hominins and Hominids (modern humans, A Brief History of Archaeology 6th century BC: The title of the world’s first archaeologist goes to the ancient Mesopotamian king, Nabonidus of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, who discovered and analysed the foundation deposit of the Akkadian Empire ruler Naram-Sin (2200 BC) 14th-15th century: Grave robbers from France, Britain and Denmark dug up ancient art objects to be sold as drawing room art showpieces. They travelled to the colonised Near-East and Egypt, where they looted pyramids and stole immense riches of the kings of ancient Egypt, Babylon and Persia from their tombs. This serendipitously led to the development of classical archaeology Classical Archaeology: In the 1400s, Cyriacus of Ancona collected and copied books and documents about archaeological monuments in Greece and the Mediterranean for 25 years. In the 18th century, people started to become aware of ancient civilisations Antiquarian studies: In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, art collectors appear in England, France and Scandinavia, which promoted antiquarian studies among scientifically adventurous people. British and European colonialism in Asia, Africa, America and Australia made it possible for collectors to bring home antiquities of great historical value and study. European museums were suddenly stocked with objects, and knowledge about arcane ancient Eastern and Western cults spread The Beginning of Scientific Archaeology: In 1814, a French customs official, Boucher de Perthes, discovered stone tools in the valley of the Somme in France, along with the fossils of prehistoric animals. In 1863, Sir Charles Lyell published the geological antiquity of man. In 1857, the fossil of prehistoric Stone Age man was discovered in a stone cave at Neanderthal in Germany. He was named the Neanderthal man. Archaeology was accepted as a science by the mid-19th century The Birth of Modern Archaeology: Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species further encouraged the study of man’s antiquity and his evolution from an animal species from a remote time. Heinrich Schliemann conducted the first archaeological excavation in Greece to discover the city of Troy. Radiocarbon dating was invented in mid-20th century to reconstruct the unrecorded prehistory of man chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans, plus all their immediate ancestors). “This is a debate that has been ongoing for a long time. There are potentially a lot of places where the modern human could have developed from. There are believed to be at least 21 hominid species before Homo sapiens walked the earth. Whether they originated all out of Africa or in other corners of the world is a larger debate,” says Shriya Gautam, Founder and Director of Research at Speaking Archaeologically, an archaeological education group. PREHISTORIC WARS ETCHED IN BONE Home sapiens is probably the only species that settles debates often with violence. Man’s most primitive instinct to wage war was evident even then; archaeologists have plenty of evidence of brutality between humans and Neanderthals, who hunted big animals with clubs and spears. The longest war on earth lasted for 10,000 years between Neanderthals, who were physically powerful with larger brains and stronger arms, and the less stronger humans. Fossils of both species show signs of battle: traumas to the skull caused by clubs, parry fracture of the lower arm caused by warding off blows and spears plunged into chests. The warfare was prolonged, and through skirmishes, guerrilla-style raids and ambushes. Our species kept losing for thousands of years because the enemy which had superior , strength and numbers, knew the terrain intimately We don’t . know how or why they were beaten in the end. Humans had built weapons with longer range like bows, spear-throwers and throwing clubs, which allowed Turn to page 2 The india story 18th Century: Systematic research into the sub-continent’s history was first undertaken by the Asiatic Society founded by the British Indologist Sir William Jones in 1784 from 1901 under the Director-Generalship of John Marshall, who encouraged epigraphical studies. Under his leadership, the excavations of Taxila began in 1913 and lasted for 21 years. The Indus Valley Civilisation at Harappa and Mohenjodaro were duly discovered in 1921 Enter ASI: British Army engineer Alexander Independent India: The National Museum Cunningham realised the need for a permanent body, and founded the Archaeological Survey of India in 1861. Shortly after, the body was suspended due to lack of funds. It was revived in 1871, and Cunningham was appointed its first Director-General. In fact, almost two decades later, another fund crunch led to the suspension of the Director-General post until 1902 was inaugurated in Delhi on August 15, 1949 to house excavated artefacts. Excavations of Indus Age of Discovery: Fear of the ASI being shut down prevailed until the discovery of the Nigali Sagar, an archeological site in Nepal containing the remains of Asoka’s pillar. In 1896, another related discovery was made—the Lumbini pillar inscription The Curzon era: The organisation truly came into its own Valley sites at Kalibangan, Lothal and Dholavira were made in 1968 Present Day: Today the ASI administers close to 4,000 monuments and sites. The latest discoveries have been at Rakhigarhi, an Indus Valley Civilisation site in Haryana
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