Roopkund – a glacial lake located at an altitude at approximately 5,029 meters in Uttarakhand, India. When the ice melts hundreds of human skeletons appear on the surface or swim in waters. The lake was first discovered in 1942 by a ranger hunting reserve, although mention of these bones appeared with end of the 19th century. Originally believed to be the remains Japanese soldiers who made their way to the area and then died in beaver with terrible weather.
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During World War II, the British immediately sent a team of researchers to determine the nature of these remains. However, after research it was discovered that the corpses could not belong to Japanese soldiers, since they are already very many years.
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Some British Ropkund researchers and many scientists suggested that the bones belonged to General Zorovar Singh of Kashmir and his soldiers, who are said to have lost their way and died in the high Himalayas during the return after the Tibetan Battle in 1841. But the tests of radiocarbon on corpses in the 1960s contradicted and of this theory.
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Tests vaguely indicated that skeletons could relate to time to any period between the 12th and 15th centuries. it led many historians to associate corpses with a failed attack Mohammad Tulak on the Himalayan Garhwal. Other historians believed that these are victims of an unknown epidemic. Some anthropologists also put forward the theory of ritual suicide.
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Only in 2004, when a team of European and Indian scientists went to the region on the initiative of the National Geographic channel, the terrifying truth began to show up. Modern DNA analysis divided the dead into two distinct physical categories – some were shorter growth, while others are much taller. The results also showed that bodies belonged much more early time. Radiocarbon study determined the date at about 850 A.D. e.
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Cracks in their skulls indicated that they all died from a fatal hitting the back of the head. The impacts were not caused by a landslide or an avalanche, but were made dull, round objects in the size of balls for cricket. No damage to any other parts of the body meant that the strike was fired from above. The only probable an explanation for so many people getting such similar wounds at the same time, is something that fell from the sky, such as big hail.
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There is no historical evidence of any trade routes to Tibet in this area, but Roopkund is located on an important pilgrimage ways of the cult of Nanda Devi with festivals having place every 12 years. The group consisted of 500 – 600 people, was most likely were pilgrims. Travelers probably went down the slopes to get fresh water when the weather conditions have worsened.
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Without refuge in the open Himalayas, many, or perhaps all of them, died. Icy waters have retained bodies for hundreds of years. At some of them even retained hair and nails, as well as parts clothes. It’s possible that some pilgrims escaped death, went back to the village and told about what had happened, since quite interesting folklore has been preserved.
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The traditional song of Himalayan women describes a goddess so enraged by outsiders who polluted her mountain refuge, that she struck death upon them, casting “hard as steel” gradients.
Water DNA Time India
