--- In cybalist@..., x99lynx@... wrote:... If cremation burial is
consistently > associated with any early "material culture" it is
probably bronze age > Urnfield sites, which appears to have
originated in the south of modern > Poland, spread and then
fragmented. (I do not know when cremation burials
> made their earliest appearances in the east or in south Asia. Maybe
someone > on the list can help out here.)
The earliest recorded occurrence is in Dholavira (ca. 2500 BCE), in
the Gulf of Kutch, north of and not far from the Gulf of Khambat,
Gujarat, Bha_rata. After cremation, the urn, perhaps containing ashes
and bones, is interred within a circular memorial. There is an
excellent account of the funerary practices of the civilization in
J.K.Kenoyer, 1999, Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley, OUP. In Vats'
report on Excavations at Harappa, the links with the R.gvedic texts
(which report three types of practices: burial, cremation and
exposure) are analysed.