Anaemia in the Ancient Indus Valley

✍ Scribed by NANCY C. LOVELL

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 142 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1047-482X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1212(199703)7:2<115::aid-oa323>3.0.co;2-h

✦ Synopsis

The Harappan, or Indus Valley, civilization is considered by many to be among the earliest and most developed of ancient civilizations, with features such as a highly specialized and functionally integrated economy, centralized bureaucratic institutions and a large population base. Two of 29 crania recovered during the most recent cemetery excavations at Harappa display cranial lesions of porotic hyperostosis, suggestive of chronic anaemia. No lesions consistent with the effects of genetic anaemias were exhibited by any of the 92 individuals for which postcranial remains were preserved, however, suggesting that an acquired iron de®ciency is the most likely diagnosis. This low prevalence of anaemia may be linked to a good nutritional base in a diverse ecological setting, and few gastrointestinal and other infections due to high standards of personal and community hygiene. A genetic anaemia may be responsible for an apparent higher frequency of porotic hyperostosis at Mohenjo-Daro, a Harappan site that is located in a different environmental zone, but the small samples available for these and other South Asian sites render these conclusions tentative.