Immigrant Identity in the Indus Civilization: a Multi-Site Isotopic Mortuary Analysis
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IMMIGRANT IDENTITY IN THE INDUS CIVILIZATION: A MULTI-SITE ISOTOPIC MORTUARY ANALYSIS By BENJAMIN THOMAS VALENTINE A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2013 1 © 2013 Benjamin Thomas Valentine 2 To Shannon 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Truly, I have stood on the shoulders of my betters to reach this point in my career. I could never have completed this dissertation without the unfailing support of my family, friends, and colleagues, both at home and abroad. I am grateful, most of all, for my wife, Shannon Chillingworth. I am humbled by the sacrifices she has made for dreams not her own. I can never repay her for the gifts she has given me, nor will she ever call my debt due. Shannon—thank you. I am likewise indebted to the scholars and institutions that have facilitated my graduate research these past eight years. Foremost among them is my faculty advisor, John Krigbaum, who took a chance on me, an aspiring researcher with little anthropological training, and welcomed me into the University of Florida (UF) Bone Chemistry Lab. I have worked hard not to fail him, as he has never failed me. Under John Krigbaum’s mentorship, I have earned my chance to succeed in academe. During my time at UF, I have benefited from the efforts of many excellent faculty members, but I am especially grateful to James Davidson, Department of Anthropology and George Kamenov and Jason Curtis, Department of Geological Sciences. They have labored alongside me, in the classroom and laboratory, to ensure my progress. The hours they spent instructing, helping, or just listening to me have directly contributed to the completion of this dissertation. My research would very likely have been on something else entirely, however, were it not for Jonathan Mark Kenoyer and his co-directors at the Harappa Archaeological Research Project, Richard Meadow and Rita Wright. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, in particular, has supported my endeavors in Indus Civilization archaeology, offering vital counsel, collaboration, and, when needed, a firm push. His involvement 4 has been central to my successes thus far, and I cannot overstate how generous he has been. Likewise, the directors, researchers, and staff of the Archaeological Survey of India have proven foundational to my efforts, and I am forever grateful for the opportunities that they have provided. In particular, I must thank former Director- Generals Guatam Sengupta and K.N. Srivastava as well as Directors R.S. Fonia and Subhra Pramanik. They have opened the door to a world of archaeological scholarship that I am only just beginning to explore. The process of discovery, however, did not always go smoothly, and I frequently needed guidance in unfamiliar terrain. In this regard, I am especially thankful for the tireless efforts of D.V. Sharma and V.N. Prabhakar as they helped clear the path for this lone traveler and wide-eyed researcher. Their dedication to collaborative scholarship is inspiring. I received equally essential support from the faculties of Deccan College Post- Graduate and Research Institute, Pune and Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak. I am truly indebted to Vasant Shinde and Manmohan Kumar for seeing what could come of this research and repeatedly sharing their counsel and assistance. I have also benefited greatly from the expertise and kindness of Veena Mushrif-Tripathy, Pramod Joglekar, Vijay Sathe, Amrita Sarkar Das, and Vivek Dangi who regularly shared their knowledge on matters both scholarly and mundane. Additional assistance was provided by former and present researchers affiliated with Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training, Eastern India, Kolkata as well as Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto. I owe particular thanks to Suchira Roychoudhury, Akinori Uesugi, and Toshiki Osada. These and other international scholars have collectively welcomed me into their 5 academic community, and I am deeply appreciative of their respect for new ideas and new methods within archaeological research. Lastly, I must acknowledge the financial support received through UF and external granting institutions. Within the university, the Office of Research, Graduate School, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Department of Anthropology, and Graduate Student Council have frequently assisted with the indirect costs of this research. Additionally, the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) took me on as a Junior Fellow (2010-2011), during which time I conducted sample collection. Beyond monetary support, the dedication of the officers and staff at AIIS proved invaluable in overcoming the many challenges of field research. I offer my sincere thanks to Philip Lutgendorf, Purnima Mehta, Subir Sarkar, Anil Inamdar, and Mini Raji Kumar for their personal efforts on my behalf. Furthermore, The Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant (2011-2012) assisted directly with analytical expenses. Before embarking on this project, I imagined that research was something that people accomplished by themselves, either wearing a lab coat or writing insightful paragraphs late into the night. I have since learned that the true privilege of scholarship is in working closely with a community of experts, and in bringing their diverse talents to bear on problems that fire the imagination. To all of those above, and to the many more that were not mentioned by name—thank you. Were it not for you, this dissertation would not exist, and my life would be substantially less rich. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 9 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ 10 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................... 12 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 13 CHAPTER 1 OBJECTIVES AND OVERVIEW ............................................................................. 15 Mortuary Archaeology ............................................................................................. 19 Migration in Archaeology ........................................................................................ 22 2 INDUS CIVILIZATION IN CONTEXT ...................................................................... 29 Culture History ........................................................................................................ 33 Pre-Urban/Regionalization Era ......................................................................... 36 Urban/Integration Era ....................................................................................... 37 Post-Urban/Localization Era ............................................................................. 38 Integration Era Social Context ................................................................................ 40 Craft Economy .................................................................................................. 41 Food Production ............................................................................................... 43 Infrastructure and Logistics .............................................................................. 45 Trade and Interaction ....................................................................................... 47 Mortuary Variation ............................................................................................ 53 3 MATERIALS AND METHODS ................................................................................ 61 Principles of Isotope Analysis ................................................................................. 61 Heavy Stable Isotopes ..................................................................................... 62 Light Stable Isotopes ........................................................................................ 67 Stable oxygen isotopes .............................................................................. 68 Stable carbon isotopes .............................................................................. 71 Osteological Development and Diagenesis ...................................................... 73 Laboratory and Field Methods ................................................................................ 76 4 GEOCHEMISTRY OF THE GREATER INDUS REGION ....................................... 82 Environmental Background ..................................................................................... 82 7 Isotopic Variation—Heavy Isotopes .................................................................. 83 Isotopic Variation—Light Stable Isotopes ......................................................... 86 Towards an Isotopic Baseline ........................................................................... 91 Results of the Baseline Analyses ............................................................................ 93 5 FARMANA ............................................................................................................ 108 Habitation Area ..................................................................................................... 110 Cemetery