Roopkund Lake's mysterious skeletons: mystery partially but not completely solved

Roopkund Lake’s mysterious skeletons: mystery partially but not completely solved by geneticists

Located at 5029 metres above sea level in the Himalayas, Roopkund Lake is a high altitude glacial lake situated in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. The lake is frozen in winter but when the snow melts, hundreds of skeletons of unknown origin are visible at the bottom of the lake and many artifacts have been found in the area.

A popular trekking, pilgrimage and tourist destination, visitors have removed many of the artifacts as souvenirs and conservationists fear that the precious remains that are shrouded in mystery will soon disappear. Details can be found in Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roopkund

“Local legend says that the King of Kanauj, Raja Jasdhaval, with his pregnant wife, Rani Balampa, their servants, a dance troupe and others went on a pilgrimage to Nanda Devi shrine, and the group faced a storm with large hailstones, from which the entire party perished near Roopkund Lake” (cf. Wikipedia). Nanda Devi did not approve of their inappropriate celebratory behaviour and therefore punished them with death.

A team of geneticists led by David Reich, Kumarasamy Thangaraj and Niraj Rai have studied the DNA of several skeletons to try to understand their origin and the circumstances that led to their demise at Roopkund. They also carried out table isotope measurements, radiocarbon dating and oeteological analysis on the remains of the individuals.(https://www.academia.edu/40159432Ancient_DNA_from_the_skeletons_of_Roopkund_Lake_reveals_Mediterranean_migrants_in_India?email_work_card=title)

The team found that the skeletons did not result from a single event as would be expected from the local legend. They belonged to three different ancestries deposited there at different times approximately 1000 years apart:

• present-day South Asians dated to around 800 CE 7th -10th century (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh)
• Eastern Mediterranean dated to around 1800 CE 17th-20th century (Primarily Crete, Mainland Greece)
• Southeast Asian dated also to around 1800 CE 17th -20th century (Primarily Malaysia, Vietnam)

The study says that the individuals were “broadly healthy” but 3 of them had unhealed compression fractures compatible with the violent hailstorms for which the region is known. The stature (height and robustness or gracile) of the analysed individuals is equally compatible with the ancestries identified from their DNA.  They included both males and females in similar proportions, thus excluding the possibility that the groups may have belonged to a military expedition: when discovered in 1942, the British feared that the skeletons belonged to a hidden Japanese invasion force.

The researchers also discovered that they belonged to a diverse group and not members of a single family.

The two main groups showed different dietary patterns, the South Asians exhibiting a more varied diet than the Eastern Mediterraneans.

Roopkund Lake lies on the Nanda Devi Raj Jat pilgrimage route. The pilgrimage today occurs every 12 years and date back to the 8th and 10th centuries as suggested by inscriptions in nearby temples. The authors therefore theorise that the skeletons of the South Asians dating back to the 7th-10th century belong to pilgrims caught in violent hailstorms. They suggest that the South East Asian skeletons also belong to this category.

The source of the skeletons belonging to Crete/Greece ancestry is a mystery. The authors propose that they “were born during the period of Ottoman political control. As suggested by their predominantly terrestrial, rather than marine-based diet, they may have lived in an inland location, eventually travelling to and dying in the Himalayas”. 

ARTICLE  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11357-9 OPEN  Ancient DNA from the skeletons of Roopkund Lake reveals Mediterranean migrants in India  Éadaoin Harney1,2,3, Ayushi Nayak4,17, Nick Patterson5,6, Pramod Joglekar7, Veena Mushrif-Tripathy 7, Swapan Mallick3,5,8, Nadin Rohland3, Jakob Sedig 3, Nicole Adamski3,8, Rebecca Bernardos3, Nasreen Broomandkhoshbacht 3,8, Brendan J. Culleton9,10, Matthew Ferry3,8, Thomas K. Harper10, Megan Michel3,8,11, Jonas Oppenheimer3,8, Kristin Stewardson3,8, Zhao Zhang3, Harashawaradhana12, Maanwendra Singh Bartwal12, Sachin Kumar13,14, Subhash Chandra Diyundi 15, Patrick Roberts 4, Nicole Boivin4, Douglas J. Kennett16,17, Kumarasamy Thangaraj13,17, David Reich2,3,5,8,17 & Niraj Rai13,14,17  Situated at over 5,000 meters above sea level in the Himalayan Mountains, Roopkund Lake is home to the scattered skeletal remains of several hundred individuals of unknown origin. We report genome-wide ancient DNA for 38 skeletons from Roopkund Lake, and find that they cluster into three distinct groups. A group of 23 individuals have ancestry that falls within the range of variation of present-day South Asians. A further 14 have ancestry typical of the eastern Mediterranean. We also identify one individual with Southeast Asian-related ancestry. Radiocarbon dating indicates that these remains were not deposited simulta- neously. Instead, all of the individuals with South Asian-related ancestry date to ~800 CE (but with evidence of being deposited in more than one event), while all other individuals date to ~1800 CE. These differences are also reflected in stable isotope measurements, which reveal a distinct dietary profile for the two main groups.  NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | (2019)10:3670 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11357-9 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications 1

Nestled deep in the Himalayan mountains at 5029 m above sea level, Roopkund Lake is a small body of water (~40 m in diameter) that is colloquially referred to as Skeleton Lake due to the remains of several hundred ancient humans scattered around its shores (Fig. 1)1. Little is known about the origin of these skeletons, as they have never been subjected to systematic anthropological or archaeological scrutiny, in part due to the disturbed nature of the site, which is frequently affected by rockslides2, and which is often visited by local pilgrims and hikers who have manipulated the skeletons and removed many of the artifacts3. There have been multiple proposals to explain the origins of these skeletons. Local folklore describes a pilgrimage to the nearby shrine of the mountain goddess, Nanda Devi, undertaken by a king and queen and their many attendants, who —due to their inappropriate, celebratory behavior—were struck down by the wrath of Nanda Devi4. It has also been suggested that these are the remains of an army or group of merchants who were caught in a storm. Finally, it has been suggested that they were the victims of an epidemic5. 

To shed light on the origin of the skeletons of Roopkund, we analyzed their remains using a series of bioarcheological analyses, including ancient DNA, stable isotope dietary reconstruction, radiocarbon dating, and osteological analysis. We find that the Roopkund skeletons belong to three genetically distinct groups that were deposited during multiple events, separated in time by approximately 1000 years. These findings refute previous suggestions that the skeletons of Roopkund Lake were deposited in a single catastrophic event.