"kalyan97" <kalyan97@...> wrote:
<<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.>>
That is interesting and earlier than I thought they would have been. The
cremation burials in Tripolye near the Danube date about 500-750 years
earlier I believe. According to the piece I cited, the first Anatolian
(south east) cremation graves date from a little later than the earliest
Indian evidence that is given above. It seems these practices did not enter
more northern Anatolia until the about the middle of the second millennium -
perhaps this is the Mitanni? I don't know their funeral practices.
Is there any very early evidence of cremation burial on the steppes or around
the Caspian sea?
<<After cremation, the urn, perhaps containing ashes and bones, is interred
within a circular memorial.>>
Why do you say, perhaps? If this is archaeological evidence, there would
have to be ashes and bone. Or the site could not be called a cremation
burial. Is this textual or actual evidence?
S. Long