The Skeleton Lake
High in the Indian Himalayas, at an altitude of 5,029 meters (16,499 feet), sits the shallow glacial lake of Roopkund. For most of the year, it remains frozen. When the ice melts each summer, a strange sight is revealed: hundreds of human skeletons lie scattered in and around the lake's two-meter-deep waters. First documented by a British forest guard in 1942, the initial theory suggested the remains were of Japanese soldiers who perished during World War II. Scientific analysis soon showed the bones were far older.
Early studies in the 1950s examined the skeletons, noting many skulls had short, deep cracks from blows delivered from directly above. This suggested, supported by local folklore, that a single group of 9th-century pilgrims angered the goddess Nanda Devi and were killed by a sudden, violent hailstorm. A local folk song describes the goddess raining down "iron-hard" hailstones on the party. The cold, dry, high-altitude conditions preserved bones, hair, flesh, and leather goods for centuries. For decades, this was the accepted explanation for the "Skeleton Lake."
A More Complex History
A 2019 genetic study dramatically changed the story of Roopkund. An international team of scientists analyzed ancient DNA (aDNA) from 38 individuals and performed radiocarbon dating. The results showed the skeletons did not come from a single event, but from multiple incidents separated by about 1,000 years.
The analysis identified three genetically distinct groups. The first group, designated Roopkund_A, consists of 23 individuals with ancestry typical of modern South Asians. Their deaths date to between the 7th and 10th centuries CE, possibly in more than one event. Isotopic analysis of their bones shows they had a varied diet, consistent with different origins from within the subcontinent. The skull fractures found on some individuals align with the hailstone theory.
The second group, Roopkund_B, included 14 individuals with genetic ancestry typical of the eastern Mediterranean, specifically Crete and Greece. Radiocarbon dating places their deaths much later, around 1800 CE. The third group consists of a single individual, Roopkund_C, with Southeast Asian ancestry, who died around the same time as the Mediterranean group. Unlike the South Asian group, the cause of death for these later groups is unknown. The data shows that people from different parts of the world, in different centuries, met their end at this remote Himalayan lake.