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Astronomical Orientation of the Trepanned Neolithic Woman of Burzahom, Kashmir

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We present a very interesting skeleton No.7 of a 25-30 years female from the Neolithic site of Burzahom in Kashmir Valley, India, dated to about 4000 B.P. which exhibits multiple trepanations on the skull. Archaeological and anthropological investigations had revealed that the woman was suffering from a brain anomaly and head injury and was insane or epileptic and looked “different”. Among the ten excavated skeletons at Burzahom, the present study observed that the skeleton No. 6 was astronomically ‘different” from the rest of all. Our results corroborated with those from a very recent scrutiny of craniometric data (by ARS) had shown that the skeleton 6 was of a ‘very robust’ man who belonged to a round-head, broad-faced, broad-nose and medium tall phenotypically very distinct population compared to the long-head, narrow face, long nose and tall Burzahom population This enabled us to conclude that the ‘robust man’ was a shaman-cum-surgeon from a distant place who treated the woman spiritually for long and later performed trepanations. He was accepted by the Burzahom people with whom he had lived for good, died and buried there within their habitat but with a different orientation to mark a difference. Keywords: Burzahom, Neolithic, India, multiple trepanations, astronomical orientation, the shaman-cum-surgeon
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Recent Discoveries and
Perspectives in Human Evolution
Papers arising from ‘Exploring Human Origins:
Exciting Discoveries at the Start of the 21st
Century’ Manchester 2013
Edited by
Anek R. Sankhyan
BAR International Series 2719
2015
Published by
Archaeopress
Publishers of Brish Archaeological Reports
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Oxford OX2 7ED
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BAR S2719
Recent Discoveries and Perspecves in Human Evoluon: Papers arising from ‘Exploring Human Origins:
Excing Discoveries at the Start of the 21st Century’ Manchester 2013
© Archaeopress and the individual authors 2015
ISBN 978 1 4073 1372 6
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i
Table of Contents
List of Figures ...................................................................................................................... iii
List of Tables ........................................................................................................................ vi
Recent discoveries and perspectives in human evolution: Introduction ................................. 1
Anek R. SANKHYAN
1. A new juvenile cranium from Zhaotong City, Southwest China indicates
complexity of hominoid evolution in Eastern Asia .......................................................... 7
Ji XUEPING, Deng CHENGLONG & Yu TENGSONG
2. Australopithecines shoulders: New remains for Old Debate .......................................... 11
Jean-Luc VOISIN
3. Hominin palaeoanthropology in Asia comes of age ....................................................... 23
Robin DENNELL
4. Pleistocene hominin fossil discoveries in India: implications
for human evolution in South Asia ................................................................................. 41
Anek R. SANKHYAN
5. Geoarchaeological and environmental aspects of the Central Narma
da alluvium ..................................................................................................................... 53
Satya DEV & Anek R. SANKHYAN
6. The role of Balkans in peopling of Europe: new evidence from Serbia ......................... 63
Mirjana ROKSANDIC
7. The role of landscapes in shaping hominin habitats in Africa ........................................ 69
Sally C. REYNOLDS
8. The Denisova Genome: an unexpected window into the past ........................................ 77
John HAWKS
9. Preliminary results on the first paleontological, anthropological and
archaeological Pleistocene locality in Adrar, Mauritania ............................................... 81
Chérif Ousmane TOURE & Anne DAMBRICOURT MALASSE
10. The Orsang Man: a robust Homo sapiens in Central India with
Asian Homo erectus features .......................................................................................... 87
Anne DAMBRICOURT MALASSE, Rachna RAJ & S. SHAH
ii
11. Geoarchaeology of the fluvial terraces of middle Tagus River,
Central Portugal .............................................................................................................. 93
Satya DEV
12. Morphometrics of the frontal bone: a new method for measuring intracranial
profiles .......................................................................................................................... 119
Yannick KORPAL
13. Discovery of two prehistoric sites at Galudih in east Singbhum, Jharkhand:
a study in typo technology and geomorphology ........................................................... 131
Ratna BHATTACHARYA
14. Unbalanced endemic island faunas: are hominins the exception? ................................ 135
Anneke H. VAN HETEREN
15. Imaging Oldowan-Acheulian knappers: scope & limitations ....................................... 141
Tanusree PANDIT & Anek R. SANKHYAN
16. Pleistocene beads and cognitive evolution ................................................................... 149
Robert G. BEDNARIK
17. The Andaman pygmy: origins and new adaptations .................................................... 161
Anek R. SANKHYAN & Ramesh SAHANI
18. Amazing Skills: practice of Trepanation around the world .......................................... 173
Alexandra COMŞA & Anek R. SANKHYAN
19. Decryption of ethnic identity of the white mummies in Tarim Basin, China ............... 183
Xinyan CHI
20. Identification of a breast cancer BRCA1 mutation in West Bengal, India ................... 193
Abhishikta GHOSH ROY, B.N. SARKAR, R. ROY & A.R. BANDOPADHYAY
21. Depleting biosphere reserves: traditional and modern concerns in India ..................... 199
Umesh KUMAR
22. Rock art in India: a data appraisal ................................................................................ 205
Somnath CHAKRAVERTY
23. Astronomical orientation of the Trepanned neolithic woman of Burzahom,
Kashmir ........................................................................................................................ 219
Iharka SZÜCS-CSILLIK, Alexandra COMŞA & Anek R. SANKHYAN
219
23.
ASTRONOMICAL ORIENTATION OF THE TREPANNED
NEOLITHIC WOMAN OF BURZAHOM, KASHMIR
Iharka SZÜCS-CSILLIK
Romanian Academy, Astronomical Institute, Astronomical Observatory Cluj-Napoca,
Cireşilor 19, 400487 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
iharka@gmail.com
Alexandra COMŞA
Romanian Academy, Archaeological Institute, “Vasile Pârvan” – Center of Thracology,
Calea 13 Septembrie 13, 050711, Bucharest, Romania
alexcomsa63@yahoo.com
Anek R. SANKHYAN
Palaeo Research Society, Ghumarwin, H.P.-174021, India
arsankhyan@gmail.com
Abstract: We present a very interesting skeleton No. 7 of a 25-30 years female from the Neolithic site of Burzahom in Kashmir
Valley, India, dated to about 4000 BP which exhibits multiple trepanations on the skull. Archaeological and anthropological
investigations had revealed that the woman was suffering from a brain anomaly and head injury and was insane or epileptic and
looked ‘different’. Among the ten excavated skeletons at Burzahom, the present study observed that the skeleton No. 6 was
astronomically ‘different’ from the rest of all. Our results corroborated with those from a very recent scrutiny of craniometric data
(by ARS) had shown that the skeleton 6 was of a ‘very robust’ man who belonged to a round-head, broad-faced, broad-nose and
medium tall phenotypically very distinct population compared to the long-head, narrow face, long nose and tall Burzahom
population This enabled us to conclude that the ‘robust man’ was a shaman-cum-surgeon from a distant place who treated the
woman spiritually for long and later performed trepanations. He was accepted by the Burzahom people with whom he had lived for
good, died and buried there within their habitat but with a different orientation to mark a difference.
Keywords: Burzahom, Neolithic, India, multiple trepanations, astronomical orientation, the shaman-cum-surgeon
INTRODUCTION
Burzahom as a prehistoric site has been much different
from other Neolithic sites of India. During early Neolithic
times the people living in this area had adopted a strange
way of living to avoid the cold weather of Kashmir. They
used to dig up pits inside the ground which served as
homes for these nomadic people, called as ‘pit-dwellers’.
The area is full of deep and wider pits with narrow
opening at the top. The deep pits included a few steps as
staircases at the entrance, but the smaller pits had no such
steps and the people could easily jump in. These pits were
plastered from inside with mud and were either oval or
round shaped structures, barring a few rectangular or
square shaped.
In due course of time during the later phase of Neolithic,
the underground pits gave way to mud-brick dwellings
built on the top of the pits or nearby. The people also
started the use of simple earthen pots of different shapes,
sizes and colours generally grey, red or brown. There is
also evidence of polished stone and bone tools of animal
bones, horns and antlers, besides harpoons, arrowheads,
spear heads and daggers used for hunting. Some bone
needles discovered there indicate knowledge of sewing
and making of clothes from animal hides. The excavated
burnt potteries and pieces of wood reveal that they fired
the pottery and cooked food. The human burials were
found in the habitation site, under their dwelling units. A
few burials had animals too, like dog, wolf and ibex.
Besides Burzahom, several Neolithic sites were
discovered in Kashmir valley, viz., Begagund, Gofkral,
Hariparigom, Olchibag, Pampur, Panzgom, Sombur
Waztal, and Brah, but skeletal evidence is yet to be found
from them.
BURZAHOM CEMETERY IN TIME & SPACE
Burzahom Archaeological site is located about 10 km
northeast of Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley. The
Burzahom burial site (22°57’N: 79°31’E) is on a slightly
raised terrace formed of the dried-up lakes, known as
Karewa in Kashmiri. The entire Kashmir Valley is a cup-
shaped flat surrounded by the Pir Panjal mountain range
with tall birch trees widely spread in the valley, which
give the name Burzahom, meaning the “place of birch”.
For its scenic natural beauty enhanced by forests and
lakes, the Kashmir valley is a world famous tourist resort
and regarded as paradise on earth for its cold climate in
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RECENT DISCOVERIES AND PERSPECTIVES IN HUMAN EVOLUTION
220
Tab. 23.1. Graves’s data at Burzahom Archaeological Site
SKL No. Orientation Azimuth Position Depth Sex Grave goods
SKL 1 WE 270 Crouched 5’-7’11” Earthen goblets
SKL 2 WE 270 Foetal Child
SKL 3 NW-SE 315 Crouched 5’10’’ Skull of a dog
SKL 4 EW 90 5’6’’ Red ochre
SKL 5 SE-NW 135 6’ Red ochre, earthen pot, small barrel
shaped paste bead
SKL 6 NS 0 3’9’’ Male Animal bones
SKL 7 NE-SW 45 Crouched 7’4’’ Female
Red ochre, animal bones, antler, horn
pieces, soap stone circular disc
SKL 8 SE-NW 135 10’4’’ 5 carnelian barrel beads
SKL 9
SKL 10 NW-SE 315 10’7’’ Circular stone bowl
the summer months. This is why the early Neolithic
settlers had selected the place for their living. The forests
and mountains were a continuous source of food and
water.
The Burzahom site was excavated between 1961 and
1968, and yielded 10 human skeletons of different
cultural stages Neolithic (Period 1), Neolithic-Megalithic
(Period 2), and early historic cultures. The Burzahom
Neolithic period is divided into two phases: Phase I
(lower) and Phase II (upper). The Phase I belongs to the
early pit-dwellers, which has not yielded any human
skeleton, and yield the earliest C14 date of 2375±120 BC
(>4375BP). It is the Phase II which has yielded seven
skeletons, No. 4-10 (Tab. 23.1). It includes the trepanned
skull (skeleton 7) referred here as the Burzahom skull,
and dates around 2000 BC (=ca. 4000 BP). The
remaining three skeletal burials (1-3) are of the Neolithic-
Megalithic cultural complex (Basu & Pal, 1980;
Sankhyan & Weber, 2001).
The Position of the Burials
Among the ten Burzahom skeletons, five are of adult
males, three of adult females, one of a juvenile and one of
a child. All the interments had their orientation close to
the NW-SE directions, except the skeleton 6, oriented to
N-S direction. Some of them had grave goods, and some
others had not (Tab. 23.1). The phase II Neolithic burials
had been discovered in the habitation area below the
dwelling’s floor, at a considerable depth, which varied
from 4 feet to 9 feet and 6 inches. When considering
those seven interments of the Neolithic phase II, we
should bear in mind that 5 of them have been found in a
“primary position”, which means that the corpse was
buried in a complete form, without missing parts. On the
other hand, there are also two “secondary burials” of
totally or partially disarticulated skeletons likely resulted
from the excarnation of the individuals. In this case, as a
consequence of the mentioned method of disposing of the
dead, the decomposition of the body has taken place.
Some smaller parts of the skeleton had been carried away
by birds or animals and the others remained in place, but
disturbed. Both, the extended and crouched positions of
the skeletons were observed. A special characteristic of
the Neolithic phase II was the use of the ochre, spread
both on the human and animal bones (Basu & Pal, 1980:
Table 1). One of the burials contained an earthen pot
(SKL 5) and a barrel-shaped paste bead, another had
barrel-shaped carnelian beads (SKL 8) and another one
had a circular stone bowl (SKL 10). One of the burials
(SKL 3), which was assigned to the Neolithic-Megalithic
Phase, also contained a dog skull buried together with the
human individual, considered to be an Early Chinese
custom.
After a detailed anthropological study it resulted that the
respective burials were part of a long-headed and tall
homogeneous population, being more related to the
mature Harappan in the Cemetery R37 than to other
contemporary Neolithic populations elsewhere in India.
Also, given the presence of the ‘Charles facet’ and of the
‘squatting facet’ on the distal femora and tibia of some
individuals they are possibly closer to the today’s Punjabi
people in Northwest India.
The Skeleton of the Trepanned Skull
The skeleton 7 bearing the trepanned skull was primary in
articulated position found in a crouched position, with a
Northeast-Southwest orientation. The individual was
reportedly accompanied by animal bones, antler and horn
pieces including a stone soap-disk. The burial was not
disturbed and was placed inside the pit with the right side
of the skull lying downward and the trepanned surface
upwards. It is interesting to note that the human bones
were reportedly covered with red ochre.
Anthropological data on Trepanned Skull
The anthropological study of the skeleton by Basu & Pal
(1980) had revealed that it belonged to a woman, aged at
26-30 years, with an ovoid skull, having marked
dolichocrany and high calvaria. Its cranial capacity was
of 1353 cc. The skull is elongated, with cryptozygy. It has
some missing parts, like: the basal part of the cranium,
part of the occiput, the greater wing of the sphenoid, the
nasal bones, as well as part of the right maxilla. It could
be observed that a hemihypertrophy and asymmetry
existed on the left side of the skull, with the left mastoid,
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I. SZÜCS-CSILLIK, A. COMŞA, A.R. SANKHYAN: ASTRONOMICAL ORIENTATION OF THE TREPANNED NEOLITHIC WOMAN OF BURZAHOM
221
Fig. 23.1. Trepanned Burzahom skull and the re-sequencing of the trepanation process
(after A.R. Sankhyan, 2015)
orbit and parietal oversized, associated with a deformity
of the prelambdoid region. The forehead is low, slightly
receding and with a distinct post-glabellar depression.
The nasal aperture is pyriform. Occipital squama is
protruding and the occiput narrows and converges
downward with lambdoid ossicles present at the left
lambdoidal suture. The cranium is hyperdolichocranic
with L/B index 68.7 and hypsicranic with length/auricular
height index 64.3. The face is very narrow, with medium
height, hyperlepten, with superior facial index 57.1. The
skull has a gracile look.
The Speciality of Burzahom Trepanation
For a detailed general account on the practice of
trepanation worldwide the reference may be made to the
article No. 18 in this volume by Comşa & Sankhyan. We
may not repeat on the practice of trepanation in general,
but in consideration of similar cases elsewhere we will
discuss the significance of the rare multiple trepanations
done on Burzahom skull. When we see multiple
trepanations on human brain case we feel scared and
amazed to know that such a case could ever exist,
especially if the individual had lived for some time with
so many surgeries on the skull! The skull under reference
presents six small but completed holes and 5 tiny shallow
depressions as well. Allchin and Allchin (1969) were the
first to notice the presence of trephination, yet the first
study of the interventions was done by Roy Chowdhury
(1973) – a medical expert who considered that
trepanations were done upon a living person for a medical
purpose. After seven years, the trepanation was reviewed
by two physical anthropologists, Basu & Pal (1980) who
contested this conclusion and considered that it was a
posthumous intervention for the sole purpose of taking
out bone roundels to be worn as amulets. About twenty
years later, the skull was thoroughly examined/re-
analysed by Sankhyan & Weber (2001) and Sankhyan
(2008) taking in consideration both earlier studies. They
assumed it a surgical intervention and conceptualized a
sequence of trepanation events classifying the 11 attempts
made in three major stages at different times.
Sankhyan (2015) has recently reviewed the earlier
sequence of the attempted trepanations in the
Encyclopaedia of Surgery (in Press) from where his
edited version and the image of trepanned skull and the
revised sketch of the perceived trepanation process is
reproduced here (Fig. 23.1) along with his revised
observations. He re-classified the 11 perforations into:
depressions (1-5) and trepanned holes (6-11) assuming
that in the first sitting the surgeon started his treatment of
the patient with a gentle stroke given on the top of the
head with a view to see if the patient is relieved of the
pain and chronic ailment and turns normal. This stroke
caused a small depression (1) on the top of the cranium.
The left hypertrophy of the cranium is indicative of some
brain anomaly/tumour which might have turned the
patient insane or epileptic. With the same intentions the
surgeon attempted the second stroke but this time down
below on the left parietal bone (2). The third stroke was
tried on the posterior extreme (3). All the three strokes
were probably given in a single sitting after brief
intervals, which resulted in three impressions or shallow
depressions (2-3) on the cranial vault. In the second
sitting, when the patient could not get any relief from
earlier treatment, the surgeon gave two greater stokes on
another site which caused deeper depressions (4 & 5),
followed by another and bigger one that removed the
outer table of the bone into the diploe space by
perforating the skull slightly but leaving the inner table
intact (6). Again, when the patient showed no sign of
relief, the surgeon thought of real deeper interventions in
the third sitting, which perforated the cranium and formed
two complete holes (7 & 8) made close by possibly for
bloodletting and taking out the degenerated blood tissue.
They are almost of the same size and outline and were
made very neatly and carefully by the same instrument.
Finding no relief to the patient, the surgeon made another
trepanation in the fourth sitting, which was probably his
last effort on the living patient when a single neat
rounded hole (9) was made. However, the patient perhaps
succumbed to death in this attempt, so that the remaining
two holes (10 & 11), which are bigger in size and
uneven in shape, were most likely a post-mortem study
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RECENT DISCOVERIES AND PERSPECTIVES IN HUMAN EVOLUTION
222
trial to ascertain the cause of the pathology, and for a
simple demonstration/training to the future surgeon.
There are fracture lines emanating from these big
perforations indicating that the patient had suffered from
a trauma.
Sankhyan (2015) further clarified that no instruments that
could have been used in trepanation were found in the
trepanated burial site except some animal bones, antler,
horn pieces, and a soap stone circular disc. It is therefore
possible that the antler piece or animal bones could have
been used as drills of various diameters for trepanation.
Erdal & Erdal (2010) observed that only the drilling
technique with flint or bone drills was practiced during
Neolithic times, whereas the cutting and scraping
techniques were developed later with bronze instruments
during the Bronze Age, followed by iron instruments
during the megalithic period. In this background, I am of
the opinion that we may rule out the possibility of
inviting an Indus surgeon speculated by George Weber
earlier (Sankhyan & Weber (2001)).
Sankhyan (2015) also concurred with Basu & Pal (1980)
about the extraction of the roundels from the Burzahom
skull except in the post-mortem trepanation. We further
share his argument that trepanation at Burzahom skull
was NOT done for extracting roundels which were
possible through a cutting technique, whereas Burzahom
trepanation indicates drilling rather than cutting. The drill
would rather damage and push the bone piece inside the
skull thereby making it difficult to retrieve until the skull
is hollow and devoid of brain. In this context Sankhyan
and Weber (2001) had also previously considered that the
trepanned woman was a solitary case in the necropolis of
Burzahom and that there was no direct evidence of
wearing human bone roundels as amulets in North Indian
tribes.
Who performed the Burzahom operation?
It is difficult to believe that a small group of the
Burzahom nomads had the skills of performing such a
surgical operation. It seems that the Neolithic
populations, at least those European ones, from Moldova,
a region of today Romania, took over the trepanation
technique from nomadic populations, the so-called
bearers of the Pit Grave Culture. Perhaps, these tribes,
given their mobility, had two main reasons to improve
their ways of treating diseases: they came in contact with
many other communities, so that they also had contacts
with many pathogens and also had developed immunity.
They could refine their technique and instruments
through inter-cultural exchanges; they learned and were
receptive to everything about medicine. Moreover, the
health condition of the people was very important, as the
ill ones had to be taken care of and even transported from
one place to another, facts that would have increased the
efforts of the community. Many hunter-gatherers in India
are snake charmers, traditional medicine men and
shamans who render good services to the agricultural
communities; some of the members of the latter have also
learnt such skills from the nomads. But, it is interesting to
observe that the hunter-gatherer Massai of Africa still do
trepanations. The rare and interesting way of living in
underground pit dwellings is also a testimony to the
innovative capability of the Burzahom people. But, the
cases of multiple trepanations are rare while the single or
double trephinations in vivo are in thousands in various
periods of the world history (Comşa, 2008). As in the
Romanian Neolithic there are no multiple trephinations,
we could mention a skull from the Early Bronze Age site
of Cetǎţenii din Deal (Argeş County) (Russu & Bologa,
1961), as well as another one from Zimnicea-Cemetery I
(Teleorman County), both with traces of four unfinished
trephinations (Necrasov, 1977). On the American
continent, a much later skull from Cuzco (Peru), dated ca.
1000 AD, had seven holes on its calotte (Greenblatt,
1997:31). There is a mention of cases of multiple
trepanations in the Inca (Verano 2003). Two skulls have
four big trepanned holes each; in one skull these were
done by the boring and cutting technique and in the
second by the circular grooving technique (Erdal & Erdal,
2010). The well-healed holes are a striking evidence of
four surgical operations carried out in vivo in Peru.
ASTRONOMICAL ORIENTATION
It seems that the Old World was one of the most
important “centres” of the trephination practice, one of
them being situated in the region of today’s France. The
largest number of trepanned skulls in that country had
been found in collective burials and were dated to Late
Neolithic-Chalcolithic, being concentrated in two
principal material cultures (the Treilles group on the
Grande Causse and the Seine-Oise-Marne Culture from
the Paris basin (Beyneix 2013: 54). The present case from
Burzahom is very interesting, given the several
trephinations found, either completed or not upon a single
subject.
Astronomically, a population which practices agriculture
observes the sky, constellations in different manner than
the hunter-gatherer and fisher populations, as they have
different purposes. Their observations about the sky are
reflected in burial orientations. In the present case the
orientation is just guidance, and reflected no solar cult; it
showed that the Burzahom population was a
homogeneous nomadic community. The epileptic woman
was buried in the same manner used for the other
members of the little group.
In Neolithic time the sky was enthralling, the night sky
was dark, with a lot of bright stars. At the foot of the
Himalaya Mountain it must have been a very clear sky,
perfect for daily observations. This Neolithic sky must
have been so fascinating that the ancient man had a lot of
cults conceived by observing the sky. Moreover, those
people had introduced the sky rituals in their life (in
every day concerns, in burials, in constructions, etc.). The
people have used the astronomical phenomena in order to
orientate in time and space, for calculating the ideal
weather corresponding to their agricultural occupation,
for hunting success, etc. Many Neolithic civilizations
existed on the Indian Territory.
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I. SZÜCS-CSILLIK, A. COMŞA, A.R. SANKHYAN: ASTRONOMICAL ORIENTATION OF THE TREPANNED NEOLITHIC WOMAN OF BURZAHOM
223
Our astronomical investigation refers to the Burzahom
Neolithic site (latitude: 22°57’N) with 10 skeletons from
two phases, dated around 2000 BC (4000 BP). For
orientation in space, the ancient man from Burzahom
used the Sun’s apparent motion on the sky. He observed
that the Sun rises and sets, and he must have also
observed that the sunrise and sunset locations on the
horizon varied in one year. He must have observed that
the day and night are not of the same lengths. At
equinoxes, in spring and autumn, there is a period when
the length of the day is equal with the length of the night.
At solstice, in summer, there is a period when the day is
very long, and in winter, there are few days when the
night is very long. These oscillations must have been
known by a daily ancient observer. In a year, the sunrises
and the sunsets describe an arc at the horizon, called solar
arc with the endpoints at the summer and the winter
solstices. It is very interesting that the Neolithic man
preserved his daily concerns, beliefs, conceptions,
religion in the burial methodology, such as grave goods,
position of the skeleton, burial placement in the cemetery
or near the dwelling, etc. Astronomically, he kept the
orientation of the skeleton.
Studying a lot of Neolithic cemeteries worldwide, one
can realize that the skeletons are astronomically
orientated. Historians say that the Neolithic man believed
in afterlife which is why he put the grave goods near the
deceased person, who could use them in next birth.
People made the graves towards the sunrise, sunset
direction or towards the cardinal points as per their
spiritual conceptions. From archaeo-astronomical point of
view, if a necropolis had the orientation between the
solstice points for most of its skeletons, i.e. on the “solar
arcs”, then it results that the burials were arranged
towards Sun direction, and that that Neolithic community
practiced the solar cult (Comşa & Szücs-Csillik, 2013).
THE SOLAR ARC AT BURZAHOM
The orientation of skeletons (skull to pelvis) or the axis of
the graves was derived from the published records. The
azimuthal distribution of orientation of the 10 skeletons
from Burzahom Site is given in Tab. 23.1 and Fig. 23.2.
What we can see that the main orientation was NW-SE.
In fact, large sites preserved better traces of astronomical
orientation during Neolithic time or other periods. We
calculated the solar arc at Burzahom Neolithic Site by
using the fact that the local apparent positions of the Sun,
which depends on local geographical coordinates, are
depicted by horizontal coordinates (h – altitude, A – azi-
muth). The transformation relations between equatorial
and horizontal coordinates are given by (Smart, 1986):
sin(δ) = sin(φ) sin(h) + cos(φ) cos(h) cos(A),
where φ = geographic latitude, δ = the declination of the
Sun (Wittmann, 1979). If we consider h = 0 (zero
horizon) we obtain the theoretical azimuths:
)cos(
)sin(
arccos
A
Fig. 23.2. Azimuthal distribution at
Burzahom Neolithic Site
The real solar arc at Burzahom Archaeological site (2000
BC) is not at zero horizons, because the place situated at
an altitude of 1800 m above the sea level is surrounded
by high mountains, which shifted the solar arc towards
the South direction (see Lăzărescu & Turcu, 2013). The
main orientation of the Burzahom Archaeological Site
was NW-SE, according to the published records (Fig.
23.2). Inside the solar arc at Burzahom (2000 BC) there
are 3 skeletons (1 at East and 2 at West). Based on the
small sample for burial orientation, it remain inconclusive
whether the solar cult was practiced by the Neolithic
people of Burzahom.
The Burzahom skull (SKL7) goes fairly well in
morphometric with three other skeletons, except the male
Skeleton 6 which is much robust and different from all
the rest. The Burzahom population was physically more
homogeneous and anthropologically the SKL7 is not
different from the others.
DISCUSSION
In Neolithic people at Burzahom lived in small groups.
Each group had individual characteristics, habits, beliefs,
which were specific to the group. If someone was
accepted from outside the group, then it was either fully
assimilated within the group, or kept with at least part of
its customs and beliefs. In the European necropolis of
Basatanya from Hungary we have found skeletons
differentiated by astronomical orientation. Most of the
skeletons were aligned to the apparent motion of the Sun
(Solar Cult) but some of them (anthropologically
different) were orientated to the North (Csillik et al.,
2004).
Elsewhere, in some archaeological sites there are known
cases where the deceased was buried with the face
downward. In doing so its astronomical orientation fell
out of the solar arc. Such persons were punished for
something and marginalized even after death too (Szücs-
Csillik et al., 2010). In the case of the SKL 7 of the
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RECENT DISCOVERIES AND PERSPECTIVES IN HUMAN EVOLUTION
224
Tab. 23.2. Theoretical and estimated solar arc at Burzahom (4000 BC)
Solar arc Arise A
set
Summer solstice Winter solstice Summer solstice Winter solstice
Theoretical 6351’ 11608’ 24351’ 29608’
Estimated 7440’ 12752’ 23240’ 28552’
Fig. 23.3. Theoretical and estimated solar arc with skeleton azimuths
woman of Burzahom with multiple trepanations we are
observing a different special case.
The Burzahom woman with, at least, slightly abnormal
skull, might have been insane, epileptic, or otherwise
“different”, and such people were regarded with awe and
fear in most early societies (Sankhyan & Weber, 2001).
The word “different” applied to the woman of the
trepanned skull is due to expected different behaviour and
not as a distinction due to morphology, despite her left
side hypertrophy.
Studying the astronomical orientation of the Skeleton 7
with the trepanned skull from Burzahom, we realized that
it has an orientation that falls out from the main
orientation of Burzahom Archaeological Site, namely
NW-SE orientation, and moreover, falls outside of the
given solar arc. Four skeletons are orientated towards
NW-SE or SE-NW direction, three on the EW axis, one
with no data, and two are orientated N (skeleton 6) and
NE-SW (skeleton 7). The skeleton 6 belongs to a robust
man, and skeleton 7 to a gracile sick woman lying on her
right side with the trepanned side of the skull placed
upwards. Because skeleton 7 is lying crouched on the
right side, the view of the deceased person is to the North.
It is important to notice the position and the orientation of
the skeleton, the grave goods position and orientation and
the trepanned skull position and orientation.
The Neolithic man had the desire to preserve his belief by
performing the burial ceremony. Every position of the
skeleton reflects the qualities or attributes of the dead
person (Szücs-Csillik et al., 2010). We, as three different
specialists, working together as a team upon the
Burzahom trepanned skull, made a pioneer work with the
present study. Our astronomical investigation shows that
in Neolithic a small group of ten semi-nomadic people
lived separately from the other local inhabitants.
Astronomically, we may infer that somebody (likely the
skeleton 6) well mastered in medicine, treated the sick
woman (skeleton 7) got fully involved in the process and
was eventually embraced by the group.
Astronomically, the North orientation of the skeleton 6 is
an important direction for travellers, the nomadic people.
In Neolithic the North direction could have been
determined in two specific ways. During the day it could
be followed the movement of the Sun and its shadow (at
the equinoxes). During the night it could be observed the
spot around which the starry sky used to spin (the so-
called world pillar). Many Neolithic communities who
relied upon the concept of world pillar as a major belief
were shamanistic ones. In this case, the North point
represented the spot that assured the communication with
the after world, a task that could have been accomplished
just by the shaman (Comşa & Szücs-Csillik, 2013). In
recent times, the North point is in the direction of the
Copyright material: no unauthorized reproduction in any medium
I. SZÜCS-CSILLIK, A. COMŞA, A.R. SANKHYAN: ASTRONOMICAL ORIENTATION OF THE TREPANNED NEOLITHIC WOMAN OF BURZAHOM
225
Polaris star, of the Ursa Minor (Smaller Bear)
constellation. In the past, for instance, in the year of 4800
BC the polar star was Edasish (iota Draconis), while in
the year of 3000 BC the polar star was Thuban, from the
Dragon constellation.
Who trepanned the woman?
Our assertions are documented by a recent scrutiny of the
anthropological data on skeleton 6 and other individuals
of the Burzahom series by Sankhyan (2015), which
concluded that the Trepanner was indeed the man of
skeleton 6. Sankhyan (op.cit.) argued that anthropo-
metrically the man belonged to a distinct population
unlike the rest of the Burzahom skeletal population. The
skull of skeleton 6 is of a very ‘robust’ man who died in
the age of 51-55 years. The man had a rounded head as is
apparent from the mesocranic skull with LBI=74.9. His
face was very broad with large bizygomatic breadth (150
mm) and so was his very broad nose, hyper chamaerrhine
with nasal Index 68.0. His forehead (frontal) was much
receding and low. All other skeletons of Burzahom
collection belong to a homogeneous long-headed
(dolichocranic) to very long-headed (hyper dolichocranic)
population having long to longer noses, and narrow
vertical faces; they were also taller than the ‘robust’ man.
The Burzahom skeletal series finds its nearest phenotypic
parallel with the Harappan R37 series.
Basu & Pal (1980) had attributed the cranial differences
of the skeleton 6 simply to individual variation than to the
migration. However, the recent scrutiny by Sankhyan
(op.cit.) revealed that the skull 6 resembled the NGK 7
skull from Nagarjunakonda (Andhra Pradesh) of the
contemporary Neolithic series of Southern India. Hence,
both astronomically and morphologically our conclusion
is that the ‘robust man’ was a new entrant from a distinct
outside population and we identify him as the Trepanner
of the Burzahom woman. Although for a Neolithic man
from Southern India, Kashmir is too distant to visit, but
Kashmir must have been an attractive heavenly place in
the Himalayas ever since the first man discovered that.
This is why a lot of people came and settled there. Those
days medical surgeons were presumably very uncommon,
and the nomadic people were at a greater advantage to
have more information about such specialists than the
settled people. So, the Burzahom Trepanner might have
been brought there as a medical specialist.
But, again we may argue why he was buried there with
others? Probably, the treatment of the woman continued
for long which necessitated his longer stay as the young
beautiful lady was suffering from some mysterious
ailment/epilepsy/insanity, presumably due to a brain
tumour apparent from the left-sided cranial hypertrophy.
In those days such diseases were primarily attributed to
infliction of some evil spirits and there was little
difference between the spiritual specialists or shamans or
the medicine men. Trepanations were done as treatment
for removing the evil spirits; there is even a horrifying
recent instance of self-trepanation done for liberating the
spirit and enhancing self-enlightenment by Joey Mellen
and Amanda Feilding mentioned in Eccentric Lives &
Peculiar Notions by John Michell [Elliott’s Home Page].
But, at Burzahom the sick woman needed prolonged life-
saving spiritual and ultimately surgical intervention and
was therefore in the hands of this shaman-cum medical
man. She had to bear the torture of so many strokes on
her vault for trepanations, obviously for treatment and not
for bone roundels as argued by Basu & Pal (1980). But,
every likely she could not survive the 9th operation; the
last two interventions could have been as post-mortem
research experiment. Nevertheless, the surgeon was
indispensible and might have prolonged the life of the
sick woman, and therefore accepted by the community.
He lived his life there and after his death his body was
buried within the habitat of the group, but oriented
differently as a distinction from the rest of the burials.
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