Researchers of the Department of Anthropology of the Utkal University have identified a 3,500-year-old skeleton to be that of a woman. It had been excavated by a team of research scholars at Asurabindha near Banga village of Harirajpur gram panchayat on the outskirts of Jatni town on March 13.
Revealing this at a Press briefing organised by the department here on Friday, Prof Kishore Kumar Basa and Prof Sabita Acharya of the university and Dr Bina Musrif Tripathy of Deccan College, Pune, informed that the age of the woman was between 30 and 35 years. They, however, said carbon dating method would be applied to ascertain the exact age of the woman. They also said that a DNA test would be conducted on another male skeleton, excavated from Banga village in 2013, to ascertain if the woman had any relationship with him.
The two skeletons were found lying at distance of 3-4 feet, Dr Basa said. He also informed that sex of an infant’s skeleton found inside a pot and lying near the male skeleton, had not yet been determined. The anthropology professor said since these two skeletons belong to the Copper Age, they could be 3,000 to 4,000 years old.
“We have decided to send these two skeletons to Hyderabad for carbon dating,” Basa informed.
He also said that, it was found that the feet of the male skeleton had been cut off while the woman’s skeleton had remained intact which shows that people probably followed a custom of severing the feet of male persons before burying them. Speaking on the occasion, Prof Sabita Acharya said from the X-Ray examination conducted on the skull of the woman’s skeleton, revealed that she had low iron content in her body. “Though the exact cause of her death is not known, it has been found that the woman was in good health since there is no evidence of any infection in her bones,” she pointed out.