According to a latest study, the diet of the people of Indus Valley Civilization dominantly included meat with extensive consumption of beef. The study titled “Lipid residues in pottery from the Indus Civilisation in northwest India” was published on wednesday in the ‘Journal of Archaeological Science’.
Led by Akshyeta Suryanarayan as a part of her PhD thesis at the University of Cambridge, the study scans the food habits of the people living in that era. The study was conducted based on the analysis of lipid residue collected from the pottery at the Harappan sites of Haryana.
The study claims that the diet of people had a dominance of animal products including cattle, buffalo, pigs, goat sheep etc. They also consumed dairy products as stated by the study.
As per the study, cattle bones were found in high proportions which might suggest a preference for beef meat. Cattle/Buffalo were mostly abundant based on the animals bones they found.
The study has been co-authored by former vice-chancellor of Pune’s Deccan College and renowned archaeologist Prof Vasant Shinde and Prof Ravindra N Singh of BHU, as well as with Miriam Cubas, Oliver E. Craig, Carl P. Heron, Tamsin C. O Connell, Cameron A. Petrie of Cambridge University.
(Feature image source: Whoi.edu (L), Pinterest (R))
