Excavations At Inamgaon Volume 2: The Physical Anthropology Of Human Skeletal Remains (Part-1) - An Osteobiographic Analysis

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I am delighted to present to the world of scholarship this volume on human skeletal remains from Inamgaon excavations. The excavation which we camed out for thirteen seasons between 1960 to 1983 has indeed proved a landmark in the annals of Indian archecology. It is perhaps the only of its kind in the country where all the latest scientific techniques were employed for the recovery of archaeological data and its interpretation.

The present volume constitutes Volume II-Parti of the Inamgaon excavation report. A fortatious series of events led to the research project on which this book is based. Dr. J.R Lukacs of University of Oregon, Eugene, USA visited the Deccan College Post Graudate and Research Institute for the first time in the winter of 1975 for the purpose of examining human skeletal remains from Langhnaj and Nevasa. While he was working on these skeletal series, I requested him to undertake an analysis of the human skeletons recovered from the 1974-75 excavation season from Inamgaon. Some of his observations stimulated considerable interest to leam more about the prehistoric people of Inamgaon. The over-representation of pre-adolescents is a common feature amongst the Chalcolithic cultures of the Deccan Plateau. The great potential value of this segment of the skeletal evidence is often neglected in South Asian palaeo-anthropology Several noteworthy features on discrete skeletal variations and the observations on skeletal and dental pathology raised the possibility of conducting further studies on the health, dietary pattems, ecological stress and the biological affinities of the people of Inamgaon. The need for such a research project was enhanced after the brief visit of Dr. Lukacs during 1979.

Dr. S.R. Walimbe joined the Deccan College faculty in 1980 and this gave us an opportunity to launch an elaborate descriptive and analytical research project on Inamgaon skeletal series. Dr. Lukacs and Dr. Walimbe jointly carried out the exhaustive laboratory studies during the summer of 1982. These two scholars, to whom the study was entrusted, have done full justice to it. The present volume is the first product of their research; the analytic, interpretive and comparative research investigations based on the data presented in this volume will be published in the near future as a second part of this report (Volume II - Part ii). I thank Dr. Lukacs and Dr. Walimbe for giving us an exhaustive report which is in keeping with the best traditions of the Institute.

All the earlier excavations by the Deccan College at Langhnaj, Nasik, Nevasa, Navdatoli and Dwarka were comparatively on a much smaller scale. The aim then was to know the past by stratigraphical excavations. But when I was studying housewise the thousands of chalcedony blades from Navdatoll and then other objects from Tekkalakota, I thought that time had come not only for larger, periodwise, excavations, but a housewise excavation which alone can give an insight into the day to day life of the inhabitants. Here every object, small or big, important or insignificant, would be immediately plotted and its full significance in the life of inhabitants investigated.

Such an opportunity was provided by Inamgaon. This was an open site and not much disturbed after it was abandoned about 700 B.C. All the objectives were explained to the participants not only in the field but previously in the Deccan College. I am glad to say that every member of the expedition- the supervisors as well as their assistants and the local labourers- worked for thirteen long years in this spirit. The result has been that Inamgaon, though not a rich site like Lothal or Nevasa, has been regarded as an ideal excavation in India and outside.

The open door policy followed by the Deccan College from the very beginnign in inviting scholars, from India and outside, and permitting them to publish the studies in their names has immensely benefitted the scholars all over the world. I am extremely glad that Dr. Lukacs and Dr. Walimbe have succeeded in producing a detailed report on the Inamgaon human skeletal remains. Both have given an insight into the food habits, general health and biology of the prehistoric Inamgaon population.

Also important is an ethno-archaeological study of the present Inamgaon people and their relation to their distant predecessors. My own study of the 204 burials at Inamgaon and the burial practices still current in Maharashtra and Kamataka, as described by Enthoven 66 years ago, showed very close resemblance. It is to be seen how far the other objects from Inamgaon will help in such comparative studies.

This report by Dr. Lukacs and Dr. Walimbe breaks a new ground in archaeological investigations. I am deeply thankful to these scholars as well as to the educational institutions in India and the United States of America which made such a study possible.

**Contents and Sample Pages**