Biological anthropology

[Lars Martin Fosse]

Dear List members,

Having just read Kenneth A. R. Kennedy's contribution to Erodosy's book (The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia) "Have Aryans been identified in the prehistoric skeletal record from South Asia?....", I have a question to the list: 

Kennedy maintains that there are no physical traces of a distinct Aryan "race" (if you will pardon the expression), in other words that physical anthropologists find no skeletal remains that can be identified as different from the old population of North India (and which could consequently be identified with Aryan invaders or migrants) in the second millenium BCE. My question is this: Would (or to what extent would) such data be dependent upon burial method? In other words: would e.g. the burning of dead bodies have the effect of obliterating the archaeological traces of possible intruders? And what does the ancient literature say about burial methods? (I remember some Vedic talk about a "house of clay", but not have the opportunity to check it out). 

Best regards,

Lars Martin Fosse

Dr. art. Lars Martin Fosse
Haugerudvn. 76, Leil. 114,
0674 Oslo
Norway
Phone/Fax: +47 22 32 12 19
Email: lmfosse at online.no