Riscrivere la Storia con l'acqua.

Scrivo questo post, perché esso offre parecchi spunti per pensare. 

Non solo in Italia accadono certe strane cose.  Anche all'estero curiosi 'colpi di coda' possono fare arruffare le penne di vari studiosi... Di solito, sono piuttosto dubbioso e scettico di fronte a tutti coloro che annunciano di 'volere riscrivere la storia'. 
Troppo spesso, infatti, tale affermazione è fatta da imbonitori sulla pubblica piazza, tutti intenti a vendere - per rendiconto personale - il proprio ultimo ritrovato dolce-amaro a base di zucchero ed erba fandonia...
Non escludo in assoluto che la storia, così come è stata descritta, possa essere qua e là corretta in alcuni dettagli mal compresi fino ad oggi. Ma la totale riscrittura di qualche capitolo è comunque una operazione ponderosa (difficile vi siano state sviste di quella entità) e darne l'annuncio sensazionalistico è certamente una guasconata da ciarlatano, più che il comportamento corretto e prudente dello scienziato.

Si sa - ormai è un  concetto acquisito - che la storia dell'evoluzione delle specie è stata influenzata principalmente dal clima e quindi dalla geografia, dall'orografia, dalla geologia del mondo fisico circostante (anche se, certamente sì, il discorso è di quelli complessi, da non sintetizzare in una sola frase). 
Non dovrebbe destare sorpresa - quindi - che si scopra un altro, ennesimo esempio di questo principio generale accettato ormai ovunque. 
In questo caso, la cosa riguarda la Civiltà di Harappa, anche nota come Civiltà della Valle dell'Indo, o di Mohenjo-Daro.

La Civiltà di Harappa è poco nota e le recenti acquisizioni (di cui si dà l'annuncio sensazionale, da parte del Deccan College e della Università di stato di Seoul) ne stanno spostando indietro nel tempo le origini di circa un migliaio di anni, rispetto a quanto si pensasse prima. 

Inoltre, se ne definirebbe ormai un'origine certamente più orientale (nel bacino di Gagghar-Hakra, in cui pare scorresse l'antico fiume Saraswati: una specie di 'doppione', un po' più orientale, del fiume Indo) ed un solo successivo spostamento verso occidente.  
Sembrerebbe - in base ai nuovi studi - che un sito della civiltà di Harappa (Rakhighari, di cui prima si ritenevano esistenti la fase antica, l'intermedia e la tarda) sia scomparso in concomitanza con l'avvenuto prosciugamento per cause naturali di un fiume che ad esso permetteva la vita: il fiume Saraswati... Pertanto il sito sarebbe 'morto' nel 2.000 a.C. per 
via della siccità e non avrebbe potuto dunque sviluppare la fase tardiva... I ritrovamenti nel sito sarebbero così numerosi da superare ormai quelli della zona di Mohenjo-Daro, tanto da richiedere implicitamente un cambiamento anche di nome della cultura dell'epoca a sfavore della provicia pachistana del Sind di Mohenjo-Daro..

----------------

Alcuni, seppure niente affatto stupiti, non sono affatto d'accordo (anonimi professori di Dehli: questo forse ricorda qualche cosa, o qualcuno in particolare?) con quanto ipotizzato, annunciato, sostenuto sopra. 
Ritengono sia per lo meno sospetto il fatto che tale ipotesi 'storica' coincida con un cambio di potere ed ideologia politica in India (a cui tale teoria è gradita). 

Ritengono inoltre che tale problema non debba affatto essere risolto negli ambienti accademici - cui esso non compete - bensì guardando alle cose con occhi liberi da quello che definiscono un "prisma politicoideologico" deformante (fa pensare alle definizioni sperimentate più volte anche in queste pagine, oppure no?).

Le accuse di ciarlataneria da parte accademica non sono riportate dall'articolo (ma sembrano essere chiarite dall'espressione 'prisma politico-ideologico'), mentre le accuse da parte dei nuovi ricercatori sono chiare (anche se non sembrano conoscere il vocabolo 'negazionista'): "esisteranno sempre storici accademici che negheranno sempre l'esistenza deo Saraswati, per poter meglio accreditare le proprie convenienti teorie".

Che il fatto sia di grande interesse pubblico (e politico!) è dimostrato dal numero di dichiarazioni pubbliche che vari esponenti della politica e della cultura indiani si sono sentiti in dovere di fare, nel tempo (solo brevemente riassunti nella figura, più sotto). 

C'è persino almeno un libro (citato nell'articolo) in questo pasticcio. Sembrerebbe essere di una persona imparziale, che non può essere immischiato in sogni di grandeur identitaria Indiana inesistente, in quanto è francese: Michel Danino. Il libro s'intitola: "Il fiume scomparso, sulle tracce del Saraswati" e non è certamente una pubblicazione gratuita, ma certamente è appassionante lettura gratificante per moltissimi cultori locali.

I volenterosi 'riscrittori della storia' si lamentano perché gli archeologi accademici non s'affrettano ad andare a condurre scavi laddove essi chiedono a gran voce di cercare le prove delle loro teorie. Come se la questione politico identitaria avesse la priorità sulle già soverchianti e numerose priorità sociali dell'India. 
Comunque si dichiarano già entusiasti fin d'ora di quello che potranno offrire gli studi sull'aDNA (sono stati - dichiarano - attentissimi a non inquinare il materiale raccolto): potranno sapere di che colore erano capelli e pelle degli antichi Ariani, quali gusti  alimentari avessero, quale fosse il loro aspetto generale. E tutto sarà risolto. 
Proprio come avviene anche qui da noi, nel nostro splendido SardHindustan.



Excavations show that 

Harappan site died as Saraswati river dried 




 The Indus Valley civilisation, popularly known as Harappan civilisation, has been a puzzle for several decades now. 
But with the ongoing excavation in Rakhigarhi, Haryana, jointly conducted by archaeologists of Deccan College, Pune, and Haryana Department of Archaeology, along with forensic scientists from Seoul National University, South Korea, history is on the verge of being rewritten. 

Archaeological Survey of India, in collaboration with Deccan College of Pune  and scientists from Korea's Seoul National University, are excavating  a site in Rakhigarhi of Haryana [Credit: ASI]

 "After Rakhigarhi, we can say that the Harappan civilisation was at least 1,000 years older than earlier thought. 
And contrary to our longheld, conventional understanding, it first emerged in the east and then moved west, originating as it did in the heart of the Ghaggar-Hakra basin, regarded by many as the place where the Saraswati once flowed," says Vasant Shinde, vice-chancellor of Deccan College who heads the team of archeologists - the largest Harappan site overtaking Mohenjodaro in Pakistan's Sind province. 
What's going to ruffle quite a few feathers, is Harappa's supposed Saraswati connection, 
especially the way the drying up of one probably led to the decline of the other.

Rewriting history Shinde says that prior to his excavation it was believed that Rakhigarhi had all the three phases of the Harappan culture - 'Early', 'Mature' and 'Late'. 
"Our work proves that this place doesn't have the Late Harappan phase. It collapsed around 2000 BC," says he, adding: "I believe Rakhigarhi's sudden demise can be explained with the drying up of the Saraswati in 2000 BC." 

Shinde's claim is supported by Amarendra Nath, former ASI's archaeology director who had carried out excavation in Rakhigarhi between 1997 and 2000. 
"The ASI has so far discovered over 2,000 Harappan sites spread over Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. 
Of these, about 1,400 can be located in the Saraswati belt alone, while the Indus belt doesn't have more than 300-400 sites," he informs, adding: "We, in the ASI, had reached this conclusion long back. It's just that this information is coming out now."

But not everyone is impressed.

A Delhi University professor, wishing to remain anonymous, thinks this entire saga can only be analysed through the politicoideological prism, rather than the academic. 

"For me, Saraswati is a mythical river and nothing more. It's not a mere coincidence that all these things are coming up soon after the BJP came to power. It's an attempt to rewrite the history, the Aryan history," says he. 
Shinde seems circumspect on the Aryan migration issue. 
"It's for historians to decide. But as an archeologist, I can say with confidence that for at least 7,000 years, there has been no migration into this region. You go to the village today, and you will feel you are walking through the same, old Harappan civilisation thriving 5,000 years ago. The style of pottery is similar. So are the food habits," says he. 

Nath is more direct. "There will always be a set of historians who will continue to deny the existence of the Saraswati - to meet their ideological and personal requirements. They can afford to do that as history can be interpretational. (But) Not archaeology, which is based on solid evidences and facts. And evidences for long have been supporting the existence of the Saraswati in the region. Satellite imageries have proved beyond doubt the existence of a 'mighty' river drying up 4,000 years ago," Nath says. 

Michel Danino, author of The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati, reminds of the dilemma . "If we accept the Vedic hymns' description of a river flowing from the mountain to the sea and located between the Yamuna and Sutlej, the Ghaggar remains the sole candidate. But as we now know, this description can only apply to the third millennium BCE or earlier, an epoch that does not fit with the conventional scenario of a second millennium Aryan migration into India," says the French author. 
Nath has a solution to bridge this 'historical' divide. 
"Why don't the historians objecting to our claims set up their own body of archeologists and excavate these sites? Facts don't change with the change of experts. Sadly, they won't come up with such initiatives," says he. 
Neelesh Jadhao, co-director of the excavation , is excited that Korean forensic experts would conduct DNA tests on the excavated skeletons. 
"This time we have ensured skeletons don't get contaminated. 
We would know for the first time what the Harappans looked like, what they ate, what was the colour of their skin or hair, etc. 
It will add a new perspective to the Harappan study," says he. 

Source: India Today [May 22, 2015] 

Clima e (scomparsa di) Civiltà.

Il declino delle grandi città della Civiltà dell'Indo, 4100 anni fa circa,  fu determinato da un indebolimento del Monsoni estivi (oggi scientificamente provato: vedi articolo in Inglese), che portò un periodo di siccità della lunghezza di almeno 200 anni. L'articolo dell'Università di Cambridge è riportato sulla rivista Geology del 25 Febbraio. Se ce ne fosse mai stato bisogno ecco un altro studio scientifico che dimostra come sia stato il clima - non episodi bellici - a spazzare via città anche grandi, quali erano quelle dell'Indo (superavano gli 80 ettari!) e a fare scomparire i loro floridissimi commerci con il Medio Oriente, impedendo che la loro protoscrittura si trasformasse in scrittura.

Decline of Bronze Age 'megacities' linked to climate change

 Climate change may have contributed to the decline of a city-dwelling civilization in Pakistan and India 4,100 years ago, according to new research.

Excavated ruins of Mohenjo-daro [Credit: The Story of India] 

Scientists from the University of Cambridge have demonstrated that an abrupt weakening of the summer monsoon affected northwest India 4,100 years ago. The resulting drought coincided with the beginning of the decline of the metropolis-building Indus Civilisation, which spanned present-day Pakistan and India, suggesting that climate change could be why many of the major cities of the civilisation were abandoned. The research, reported online on 25 February, 2014, in the journal Geology, involved the collection of snail shells preserved in the sediments of an ancient lake bed. By analysing the oxygen isotopes in the shells, the scientists were able to tell how much rain fell in the lake where the snails lived thousands of years ago. The results shed light on a mystery surrounding why the major cities of the Indus Civilisation (also known as the Harappan Civilisation, after Harappa, one of the five cities) were abandoned. Climate change had been suggested as a possible reason for this transformation before but, until now, there has been no direct evidence for climate change in the region where Indus settlements were located. Moreover, the finding now links the decline of the Indus cities to a documented global scale climate event and its impact on the Old Kingdom in Egypt, the Early Bronze Age civilisations of Greece and Crete, and the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia, whose decline has previously been linked to abrupt climate change. "We think that we now have a really strong indication that a major climate event occurred in the area where a large number of Indus settlements were situated," said Professor David Hodell, from Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences. "Taken together with other evidence from Meghalaya in northeast India, Oman and the Arabian Sea, our results provide strong evidence for a widespread weakening of the Indian summer monsoon across large parts of India 4,100 years ago." Hodell together with University of Cambridge archaeologist Dr Cameron Petrie and Gates scholar Dr Yama Dixit collected Melanoides tuberculata snail shells from the sediments of the ancient lake Kotla Dahar in Haryana, India. "As today, the major source of water into the lake throughout the Holocene is likely to have been the summer monsoon," said Dixit. "But we have observed that there was an abrupt change, when the amount of evaporation from the lake exceeded the rainfall – indicative of a drought." At this time large parts of modern Pakistan and much of western India was home to South Asia's great Bronze Age urban society. As Petrie explained: "The major cities of the Indus civilisation flourished in the mid-late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC. Large proportions of the population lived in villages, but many people also lived in 'megacities' that were 80 hectares or more in size – roughly the size of 100 football pitches. They engaged in elaborate crafts, extensive local trade and long-ranging trade with regions as far away as the modern-day Middle East. But, by the mid 2nd millennium BC, all of the great urban centres had dramatically reduced in size or been abandoned." Many possible causes have been suggested, including the claim that major glacier-fed rivers changed their course, dramatically affecting the water supply and the reliant agriculture. It has also been suggested that an increasing population level caused problems, there was invasion and conflict, or that climate change caused a drought that large cities could not withstand long-term. "We know that there was a clear shift away from large populations living in megacities," said Petrie. "But precisely what happened to the Indus Civilisation has remained a mystery. It is unlikely that there was a single cause, but a climate change event would have induced a whole host of knock-on effects. "We have lacked well-dated local climate data, as well as dates for when perennial water flowed and stopped in a number of now abandoned river channels, and an understanding of the spatial and temporal relationships between settlements and their environmental contexts. A lot of the archaeological debate has really been well-argued speculation." The new data, collected with funding from the Natural Environment Research Council, show a decreased summer monsoon rainfall at the same time that archaeological records and radiocarbon dates suggest the beginning of the Indus de-urbanisation. From 6,500 to 5,800 years ago, a deep fresh-water lake existed at Kotla Dahar. The deep lake transformed to a shallow lake after 5,800 years ago, indicating a weakening of the Indian summer monsoon. But an abrupt monsoon weakening occurred 4,100 years ago for 200 years and the lake became ephemeral after this time. Until now, the suggestion that climate change might have had an impact on the Indus Civilisation was based on data showing a lessening of the monsoon in Oman and the Arabian Sea, which are both located at a considerable distance from Indus Civilisation settlements and at least partly affected by different weather systems. Hodell and Dixit used isotope geochemical analysis of shells as a proxy for tracing the climate history of the region. Oxygen exists in two forms – the lighter 16O and a heavier 18O variant. When water evaporates from a closed lake (one that is fed by rainfall and rivers but has no outflow), molecules containing the lighter isotope evaporate at a faster rate than those containing the heavier isotopes; at times of drought, when the evaporation exceeds rainfall, there is a net increase in the ratio of 18O to 16O of the water. Organisms living in the lake record this ratio when they incorporate oxygen into the calcium carbonate (CaCO3) of their shells, and can therefore be used, in conjunction with radiocarbon dating, to reconstruct the climate of the region thousands of years ago. Speculating on the effect lessening rainfall would have had on the Indus Civilisation, Petrie said: "Archaeological records suggest they were masters of many trades. They used elaborate techniques to produce a range of extremely impressive craft products using materials like steatite, carnelian and gold, and this material was widely distributed within South Asia, but also internationally. Each city had substantial fortification walls, civic amenities, craft workshops and possibly also palaces. Houses were arranged on wide main streets and narrow alleyways, and many had their own wells and drainage systems. 
Water was clearly an integral part of urban planning, and was also essential for supporting the agricultural base. At around the time we see the evidence for climatic change, archaeologists have found evidence of previously maintained streets start to fill with rubbish, over time there is a reduced sophistication in the crafts they used, the script that had been used for several centuries disappears and there were changes in the location of settlements, suggesting some degree of demographic shift." "We estimate that the climate event lasted about 200 years before recovering to the previous conditions, which we still see today, and we believe that the civilisation somehow had to cope with this prolonged period of drought," said Hodell. The new research is part of a wider joint project led by the University of Cambridge and Banaras Hindu University in India, which has been funded by the British Council UK-India Education and Research Initiative to investigate the archaeology, river systems and climate of north-west India using a combination of archaeology and geoscience. The multidisciplinary project hopes to provide new understanding of the relationships between humans and their environment, and also involves researchers at Imperial College London, the University of Oxford, the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and the Uttar Pradesh State Archaeology Department. "It is essential to understand the link between human settlement, water resources and landscape in antiquity, and this research is an important step in that direction," explained Petrie. "We hope that this will hold lessons for us as we seek to find means of dealing with climate change in our own and future generations." 

Source: University of Cambridge [February 26, 2014]

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Climate caused the Late Bronze Age collapse in the Eastern Mediterranean

PLoS ONE 8(8): e71004. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0071004

Environmental Roots of the Late Bronze Age Crisis 

David Kaniewski et al.

The Late Bronze Age world of the Eastern Mediterranean, a rich linkage of Aegean, Egyptian, Syro-Palestinian, and Hittite civilizations, collapsed famously 3200 years ago and has remained one of the mysteries of the ancient world since the event’s retrieval began in the late 19th century AD/CE. Iconic Egyptian bas-reliefs and graphic hieroglyphic and cuneiform texts portray the proximate cause of the collapse as the invasions of the “Peoples-of-the-Sea” at the Nile Delta, the Turkish coast, and down into the heartlands of Syria and Palestine where armies clashed, famine-ravaged cities abandoned, and countrysides depopulated. Here we report palaeoclimate data from Cyprus for the Late Bronze Age crisis, alongside a radiocarbon-based chronology integrating both archaeological and palaeoclimate proxies, which reveal the effects of abrupt climate change-driven famine and causal linkage with the Sea People invasions in Cyprus and Syria. The statistical analysis of proximate and ultimate features of the sequential collapse reveals the relationships of climate-driven famine, sea-borne-invasion, region-wide warfare, and politico-economic collapse, in whose wake new societies and new ideologies were created. 

CLIMA E SOCIETA' UMANE

Posto ques'interessante ricerca come un'ennesima prova del significato e degli effetti del clima sulle società umane (in tutte le epoche). Alla luce di questi fatti provati in modo interdisciplinare (Paleoclimatologia, Archeologia, PaleoMedicina Osteologica), sono certo che i sostenitori dell'Epopea dei Popoli del Mare continueranno a coprirsi di guano con le proprie teorie farneticanti, ma saranno certamente un po' più buffi, se possibile...

1) Violence, 

2) infectious disease and 

3) climate change 


contributed to 


Indus Civilization collapse 


 A new study on the human skeletal remains from the ancient Indus city of Harappa provides evidence that inter-personal violence and infectious diseases played a role in the demise of the Indus, or Harappan Civilization around 4,000 years ago.


 Evidence for maxillary infection. The lesions included porosity, alveolar resorption, abscessing at the right canine and third premolar, and antemortem tooth loss (a = right ventral view). This individual also had inflammatory changes to the palatine process of the maxilla leading to localized bone destruction and perforation (b = inferior view of palate). There is evidence for porosity and inflammation at the inferior margin of the pyriform aperture, porosity and deformation of the infraorbital foramen caused by infection of the left maxillary sinus (c: ventral view)[Credit: Appalachian State University] 

The Indus Civilization stretched over a million square kilometers of what is now Pakistan and India in the Third Millennium B.C. While contemporaneous civilizations in Egypt and Mesopotomia, are well-known, their Indus trading partners have remained more of a mystery. Archaeological research has demonstrated that Indus cities grew rapidly from 2200-1900 B.C., when they were largely abandoned. "The collapse of the Indus Civilization and the reorganization of its human population has been controversial for a long time," lead author of the paper published last month in the journal PLOS ONE, Gwen Robbins Schug, explained. Robbins Schug is an associate professor of anthropology at Appalachian State University. Climate, economic, and social changes all played a role in the process of urbanization and collapse, but little was known about how these changes affected the human population. Robbins Schug and an international team of researchers examined evidence for trauma and infectious disease in the human skeletal remains from three burial areas at Harappa, one of the largest cities in the Indus Civilization. The results of their analysis counter longstanding claims that the Indus civilization developed as a peaceful, cooperative, and egalitarian state-level society, without social differentiation, hierarchy, or differences in access to basic resources. 

 Lesions on the cranial vault of a male skull [Credit: Appalachian State University] 

The data suggest instead that some communities at Harappa faced more significant impacts than others from climate and socio-economic strains, particularly the socially disadvantaged or marginalized communities who are most vulnerable to violence and disease. This pattern is expected in strongly socially differentiated, hierarchical but weakly controlled societies facing resource stress. Robbins Schug's and colleagues' findings add to the growing body of research about the character of Indus society and the nature of its collapse. "Early research had proposed that ecological factors were the cause of the demise, but there wasn't much paleo-environmental evidence to confirm those theories," Robbins Schug said. "In the past few decades, there have been refinements to the available techniques for reconstructing paleo-environments and burgeoning interest in this field." When paleoclimate, archaeology, and human skeletal biology approaches are combined, scientists can glean important insights from the past, addressing long-standing and socially relevant questions. "Rapid climate change events have wide-ranging impacts on human communities," Robbins Schug said. "Scientists cannot make assumptions that 

climate changes will always equate to violence and disease. 

However, in this case, it appears that the rapid urbanization process in Indus cities, and the increasingly large amount of culture contact, brought new challenges to the human population. Infectious diseases like leprosy and tuberculosis were probably transmitted across an interaction sphere that spanned Middle and South Asia." 

Prevalence of infection and disease in three mortuary assemblages from Harappa [Credit: Appalachian State University]

Robbins Schug's research shows that leprosy appeared at Harappa during the urban phase of the Indus Civilization, and its prevalence significantly increased through time. New diseases, such as tuberculosis, also appear in the Late Harappan or post-urban phase burials. Violent injury such as cranial trauma also increases through time, a finding that is remarkable, she said, given that evidence for violence is very rare in prehistoric South Asian sites generally. "As the environment changed, the exchange network became increasingly incoherent. When you combine that with social changes and this particular cultural context, it all worked together to create a situation that became untenable," she said. The results of the study are striking, according to Robbins Schug, because violence and disease increased through time, with the highest rates found as the human population was abandoning the cities. However, an even more interesting result is that individuals who were excluded from the city's formal cemeteries had the highest rates of violence and disease. In a small ossuary southeast of the city, men, women, and children were interred in a small pit. The rate of violence in this sample was 50 percent for the 10 crania preserved, and more than 20 percent of these individuals demonstrated evidence of infection with leprosy. Robbins Schug said lessons from the Indus Civilization are applicable to modern societies. "Human populations in semi-arid regions of the world, including South Asia, currently face disproportionate impacts from global climate change," the researchers wrote. "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."


 Source: Appalachian State University [January 17, 2014[

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