2019, Vol.32, No.2

Anatomy & Biological Anthropology 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.33

pISSN : 2671-5651 / eISSN : 2671-566X
https://journal.kci.go.kr/aba

India provides large number of skeletal data from the pre- and protohistoric levels covering a time span of almost 10,000 years. Major skeletal collection comes from the cultural phases ranging from the Mesolithic, Harappan, Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Iron Age levels. After the Early Historic phase cremation became the most common method for disposing the dead. Though the relevant documentation is far less than complete, recovery of human burials has been reported from more than 300 sites (Mushrif-Tripathy et al. 2016) and a conservative estimate would lead to imagine approximately 2000 human skeletons. The human skeletal analysis started around 1950s and initial focus of the study was to understand the racial classification of the skulls and to prove the Indo-Aryan invasion theory. Later from 1980s multidisplinary approach including socio-cultural anthropology, growth and nutrition and medical anthropology were considered. The recent development includes the use of new scientific methods like isotope, aDNA, DXA scans, and Scanning Electron Microscope studies etc. are consider to understand ancient inhabitants of Indian Sub-continent.

Leprosy is an important topic in the research field of bioanthropology and paleopathology. In this study, by reviewing historical documents, we are to investigate the life and death of leprosy patients during Joseon period. In historical records of Korea, though many leprosy patients suffered from being casted out of the Joseon society, some lucky patients spent the rest of life at home, fully supported by their family and relatives. Although these cases might not represent the entire leprosy patient, when they died, the family buried them politely according to the Confucian ritual commonly practiced at the time. Actually, very few leprosy cases in Korean history have been reported from anthropological studies so far. The present review shows that the discovery of leprosy patients from ancient human skeletons in Korea is not entirely hopeless.

In archaeological excavation sites in Korea, human skeletal remains of various periods were discovered. However, there have been very few studies on skeletal cases of Goryeo period so far. Therefore, in order to obtain the genetic profiles of Goryeo period Korean people at that time, we tried to reveal haplogroups by mtDNA analysis of four skeletons from Goryeo period graves. In this study, the haplogroup identified from them were D4b2b, D4e1a1, D4 and N9a1ʹ3, respectively. This study is invaluable because it is one of the rare reports of genetic information of Korean people of Goryeo Dynsaty.