Magazine Thingy

I was asked to write a small piece a few months ago on Indian archaeology for an online magazine called Live Encounters. It's now been published in the March issue. It has some photos that I haven't put up here yet, and the subject matter is similar to what the blog deals with.

Here's the link in case you're interested:
http://liveencounters.net/?page_id=356

It's been edited a bit since I wrote it, which I'm a bit unsure about, but I guess that's how these things work.

Fieldwork: Haryana

I've been on a dig in Haryana for a couple of weeks, and will be here for another few, so there won't be many (any) posts until mid-April.

This is the project that I'm involved with. My PhD will be on the ceramics that we are currently excavating.

http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/rivers/

Hope everyone's enjoying the spring!

Trowel and Error: The Bronze Age (A Reinterpretation)

This is a sketch by a brilliant comedy duo called Mitchell and Webb (Big Foot and Red Beard), on the transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, and how chronological periods give the impression that everyone woke up one morning and decided to switch to a different way of life. Of course, such changes are generally a very gradual social evolution.

The End of the Raj: As Seen Through Home Videos

Cambridge University's Centre for South Asian Studies has uploaded a large number of 'home videos' about the Raj onto their website, where they may be accessed for free by anyone. These videos are from over 50 private collections, from 1911 to 1956, chronicling political and social events at the end of British rule in India.

The article says:

"The silent films cover a huge range of topics, including harrowing scenes shot during the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, images of labourers working on railways and dams, and pictures of the funeral of Lord Brabourne, a former Governor of Bombay and Bengal, in 1939.

They also open a window both on to some of the lesser-studied facets of Imperial history, such as women's experiences in colonial India; and aspects which otherwise would simply have gone unrecorded."

Access the films at http://www.s-asian.cam.ac.uk/films.html

If you watch the videos and have a comment, do leave one underneath this post!

Delhi: Archaeologists vs. Wakf Board

A little controversy in the news right now; The Hindustan Times did a write-up on a debate over heritage structure ownership in Delhi. Click on the link for the full article.

The Delhi State Archaeological Dept. issued notifications for the protection and conservation of 39 monuments in Delhi. The Delhi Wakf Board has objected to 25 of these monuments, on the grounds that they are already wakf and hence should not be treated as "mere monuments". A wakf or waqf is an inalienable religious endowment in Islam, like land or a building for religious or charitable purposes (thanks Wikipedia).

Clashes between archaeologists and those who live on or around monuments and sites are not uncommon. It's impossible to save everything and keep monuments untouched, and I don't know any archaeologists who think that way. However, it is important that the monuments that we do have are well looked after.

I don't know what kind of conservation scheme the Archaeological Dept. has proposed, and I don't know if or how it'll interfere with the religious uses of the wakf, but I do hope they can find some kind of compromise. People still live in and use a lot of the medieval monuments around Delhi and Haryana, and frankly, it isn't always possible to relocate them.

There should be a way to protect monuments, and simultaneously ensure that the continued usage of them is sustainable.

NatGeo Indus Feature

This is just a little piece on the Indus that National Geographic did a while ago. I'm linking to it for two reasons: Firstly, the Indus is not a hot topic in archaeology, compared to Egypt, Mesopotamia etc, so it tends not to get featured in popular media, which cuts me real deep. So I like to take advantage when it happens. And secondly, this being NatGeo, they've spoken to two excellent Indus archaeologists, among the biggest names today (both are American), and it's good to hear what they have to say about this stuff.

The second link is a wonderful photo of the Great Bath of Mohenjo-daro. It's interesting because it's one of the few monumental structures found in the city, and in the wider Indus. If you compare the Indus to its contemporaries, and everyone inevitably does, this is pretty damn weird. They had the resources, labour and technology to construct big temples or palaces if they wanted to, but these monuments are noticeably absent when you study the cities. This makes Mohenjo-daro unusual among Indus cities, and may mean it was a religious centre of some sort. The Great Bath was made of bricks and lined with bitumen (bit like tar) to prevent leaking. Bathing in it may have been of religious significance, as some kind of ritual cleansing. Many archaeologists believe that there was an element of reverence towards water, perhaps even water-worship, in the Indus religion.

Mohenjo-daro has also been described as a city of wells because of the stunning density of domestic wells throughout the city. No matter what the house size, nearly all structures had access to wells and drains; clearly it was an important part of their way of life.

This post is without a central theme, because I'm still working on the main pieces on the Indus. I did my Master's dissertation on Mohenjo-daro, so always get a bit carried away. The topics of religion and water at Mohenjo-daro will pop up again. Hopefully it'll whet (haha) your appetites for the Indus-tastic posts to come.

Oh, and under the photo it says 'Mohenjo-daro and its sister city, Harappa', which is total rubbish. They were the first big ones discovered, and the only ones for a long time, so everyone thought they were 'twin capitals' or 'sister cities', but we now know that there are five large Indus cities, spread out over a very large area. They are Mohenjo-daro (Sindh, Pakistan), Harappa (Punjab, Pakistan), Ganweriwala (Punjab, Pakistan), Rakhigarhi (Haryana, India) and Dholavira (Gujarat, India).


http://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/ancient/mohenjo-daro.html?fs=travel.nationalgeographic.com

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/guides/history/ancient/enlarge/mohenjo-daro.html

For more photos of Mohenjo-daro, use the link on the right hand side of the page for the website.

Conference: South Asian Archaeology

The conference of conferences, for South Asian archaeologists anyway, is coming up. The European Association for South Asian Archaeology and Art usually have a biennial conference, but it's a little late this time. The waiting's over though- the 2010 conference will be held in Vienna this July.

The proceedings of the conferences are published with all the papers, and the volumes are usually invaluable updates on all of the research on the archaeology of South Asia.

Only for those with a very hardcore academic interest! The deadline to submit abstracts has passed, but you can register to attend until February 28th.

http://www.easaa.org/

Image is the EASAA logo. No, really.