Amazing Lake skeletons Roopkund in India (9 photos)

In India, there is an amazing glacial lake - Roopkund.
It is situated at a height of approximately 5 029 meters in Uttarakhand.
When the ice melts, the water on the surface appear hundreds of human skeletons.
For the first time, the lake was discovered in 1942, the caretaker of the hunting preserve, although mention of these bones were from the late 19th century.
Initially it was thought that the remains of Japanese soldiers who made their way to the area, and then died in Borobia with terrible weather conditions.
During the Second World War, the British immediately sent a team of researchers to determine the nature of these remains.



 
However, after a study found that the bodies could not belong to the Japanese soldiers, because they had so many years.



Some British researchers Roopkund and many scholars have suggested that the bones belonged to General Zorovaru Singh from Kashmir and his soldiers, who are said to have got lost and died in the high Himalayas during return after the Battle of Tibet in 1841. But radiocarbon tests on the corpses in the 1960s contradicted this theory. Tests vaguely indicated that the skeletons could apply to any time period between the 12th and 15th centuries.



This has led many historians associate with the corpses of failed attack on Mohammad Tulakov Garhwal Himalaya. Other historians believe that the victim is unknown epidemic. Some anthropologists also theorize ritual suicide.



Only in 2004, when a team of European and Indian scientists traveled to the region on the initiative of the channel National Geographic, horrifying truth began to discover. Modern DNA analysis divided the dead into two distinct categories of individuals - some were shorter growth, and the other is much higher. The results also showed that the bodies belong much earlier time. The study determined the radiocarbon date of about 850 years BC. e.



Cracks on their skulls indicated that they all died from a fatal blow to the back of the head. Blows were not caused by landslides or avalanches, and were made blunt, round objects in the amount of cricket balls. No damage to any other parts of the body meant that the blow is made from above. The only plausible explanation for such a large number of people receiving such similar wounds at the same time is something that fell from the sky, such as large hail.



There is no historical evidence of any trade routes to Tibet in this area, but Roopkund located on an important pilgrimage route Nanda Devi cult with the festivals that take place every 12 years. The group consisted of 500 - 600 people, was most likely to have been pilgrims.



Travelers probably descended the slope to get fresh water, when weather conditions worsened. Without shelter in the open Himalayas, many, or perhaps all of them were killed. Ice water retained in the body for hundreds of years. Some of them even keep your hair and nails, as well as pieces of clothing.



It is possible that some pilgrims escaped death, they returned back to the village and told what had happened since remained pretty interesting folklore. Traditional song Himalayan women describes the goddess as an angry outsider who polluted her mountain refuge, she collapsed on the death of them, throwing "hard as steel" hailstones.



Source: mirfactov.com