Chalcolithic South Asia: Aspects of Craft and Technology (original) (raw)
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2021
The invention of rotational devices contributed to a range of developments in craft production technology, perhaps most visibly in the various forms of potter's wheels. These technological innovations, and the adoption or non-adoption of those innovations, carry economic and social implications, which are significant for understanding past human behaviour. There has been debate around the introduction and use of the potter's wheel in South Asia's Indus Civilisation for almost a century, and opinions remain divided. This paper considers the emerging ceramic traditions identified at two Indus settlements in modern Haryana, northwest India. It presents evidence demonstrating that Indus Civilisation potters utilised multiple forming techniques for producing ceramic vessels and explores the evidence for the use of rotational gestures and rotational devices in regional ceramic production industries. Two dominant technological traditions are outlined, along with the implications of this discovery and future research opportunities.
BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers, 2007
During the last few years, Indian archaeologists have concentrated their efforts on the investigation of sites of the 3rd to 2nd millennia B.C. in the Mewar region of western India. Unfortunately, most of the excavations have been focused on understanding the cultural sequence, settlement patterns, architecture, and pottery at the sites and have neglected the study of such important artifact categories as beads. As no final reports have been published and the excavations have been carried out by different agencies, reconstructing the bead culture of this area is very difficult. We know quite a bit about the beads of the urban Harappans but know practically nothing about those used by the contemporary rural Chalcolithic people. This paper discusses the beads recovered from a number of Chalcolithic sites, with emphasis on the oldest village in India-Balathal.
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition
This article outlines the major cultural periods that have been archaeologically documented in South Asia. Beginning with the Paleolithic and Mesolithic eras, the sequence of cultures from the Neolithic/Chalcolithic, Iron Age, Early Historic, and Medieval periods is presented, with some attempt to characterize the significant regional variation that is seen throughout time.
2018
This paper will briefly review the archaeological record of some of the aspects of the craft production in the Indus Tradition from the point of technology, as reflected in manufacturing cycles, possible workshops / activity areas, stock piling and dumping areas so far identified in the available archaeological record of Gujarat. The data presented here is mostly derived from three recently excavated Indus sites by the Department of Archeology and Ancient History, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in combination with the data obtained through ethnoarchaeological studies carried on the stone bead making at Khambhat, Gujarat by Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, Massimo Vidale and myself. With the adaption of rigorous excavations with emphasis on the recovery methods along with ethnoarchaeological studies a lot of fresh useful information regarding the various Indus crafts is beginning to get revealed. The study of the crafts and especially Indus Civilization crafts is growing field of investigation, though some South Asian archeologists still prefer to them as 'miscellaneous small finds'. This fresh data thus obtained is the highlights of this paper.
Exploring Ceramic Variability in Iron Age South India: Social and Political Implications
Along with the emergence of iron technologies and new forms of mortuary treatment, the South Indian Iron Age is also marked by the appearance of new and widespread ceramic wares, technologies, and vessel forms. Elegant and finely made black and red wares, polished black wares and polished red wares largely replace the simple plain wares of the South Indian Neolithic; and at least some portion of vessels are now produced using wheel-forming technologies. In addition, the localized stylistic traditions of the Neolithic are supplanted by region-wide forms, particularly in finely made serving bowls, which are recovered in both settlement and ritual contexts. In this paper, I report on ongoing analyses of ceramics from excavations at the Iron Age settlement and mortuary site of Kadebakele, located in northern Karnataka (co-directed by the Karnataka Department of Archaeology and Museum, Kathleen D. Morrison, and Carla M. Sinopoli). I review the nature and distributions of ceramic forms recovered in 9th-3rd century BCE levels at Kadebakele, and draw inferences to large patterns in ceramics forms and their role in diverse ritual and consumption activities across peninsular India during a period of dramatic sociopolitical change.
Binjor, Baror metalwork catalogues are on Indus Script inscriptions. श्मशान of Dholavira compare with Tarim basin mummies. Links between Bronze-age Bhāratam & Ancient Far East explain Munda-Mon-khmer language links. The monograph presents evidences which link 1. Tarim Basin mummies (19th cent. BCE) with the practices of ratha-cakra-citi form of post-cremation samskāra in Dholavira (ca.2500 BCE); and 2. ancu 'iron' Tocharian) cognate with amśu, which is a synonym of soma in R̥gveda. Evidence presented include: 1. Tarim mummies 19th cent. BCE, Binjor ca. 2500 BCE evidence link with Veda traditions of metalwork, Dholavira in ratha-cakra-citi cremation samskār at श्मशान 'cremation grounds'. 2. Tocharian ancu 'iron' is R̥gveda amśu, 'soma'. 3. Baror, Binjor Indus Script seals deciphered metalwork catalogues. The monograph is organized in following sections: Section 1. Binjor Evidence of yupa inscriptions as metalwork catalogues Section 2. Significance of yupa in Veda tradition Soma सं-√ स्था Section 3. Continuum of Yupa inscription tradition in historical periods Section 4. Caturaśri yupa of Kalibangan and inscription of terracotta cake. Comparison with Kalibangan discoveries Section 5. Indus Script epigraphs/inscriptions of Binjor as metalwork catalogues Section 6. Baror metalwork catalogue on seals deciphered Section 7. Mt. Mushtagh Ata, Kyrgystan (region of ancient Tushāra, Tocharian speakers) is Mujavat mountain identified as the source of Soma in R̥gveda. Section 8. Location of Mujavat and meaning ofअंशु = soma Section 9. श्मशान of Dholavira compares with Tarim Mummies close to region of Tocharian speakers Section 10 Seven Soma pālā 'guardians' (Kuiper's interpretation) Section 11. Trade contacts betwen Bhāratam Janam 'metalcaster folk' and Maujavata Section 12. Semantics of aṁśú 'Soma' and ayas 'iron'. A note on cognates: ancu 'iron' (Tocharian) ams'u अंशु 'a kind of Soma libation'(Satapatha Brahmana) Section 13. R̥gveda Potr̥ 'purifier priest', Indus Script dhāvaḍ 'smelter' and minerology of Dharwar rocks Section 14. Bimetallic systems of Lydia electrum coins and intimations of metalwork metaphors in R̥gveda Section 15. Correlation between bronze-age sites and Austro-asiatic (Munda/Mon-khmeer) speakers in Bhāratam and Ancient Far East Section 16. Funerary practices of Veda times, श्मशान 'grounds for burning dead bodies' traced in Dholavira and other sites of Sarasvati civilization compare with evidence of Tarim Basin 19th cent. BCE funerary practices (See Sectiion 9) Section 1. Binjor Evidence of yupa inscriptions asmetalwork catalogues Binjor evidence is conclusive that Sarasvati civilization is a continuum of Veda tradition of soma samsthā yajña. Students of Archaeology of India have discovered at this site a yajña kunda, an aṣṭāśri yupa (R̥gveda, Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa) and Indus Script seals (catalogues of wealth-producing metalwork) at this site which is located on the banks of Veda River Sarasvati nearAnupgarh, close to the border with Pakistan. The Indus Script seals found at Binjor are recognizable as yupa inscriptions related to metalwork. The discovery of 5 seals with Indus Script hypertexts and of metalwork and lapidary activities at the site provide hints that Binjor is an industrial site of Sarasvati Civilization Bronze Age. These Binjor seals and also seals from a nearby site of Baror have been deciphered as metalwork catalogues. These are reports of extraordinary significance because they evidence the existence of Vedic River Sarasvati as a navigable waterway by seafaring merchants with transactions across the Persian Gulf into contact areas of Ancient Near East and validate the documentation of metalwork in over 8000 inscriptions of Indus Script Corpora. Locations on banks of Vedic River Sarasvati near Anupgarh, from which flood-silt samples were taken for Optically Simulated Luminiscence (OSL) investigations. The OSL investigations demonstrate that the palaeo-channels seen on this satellite (LANDSAT) image which shows a wide (approx 6 km. wide) channel constituted a navigable waterway during periods between 13th and 3rd millennium BCE. These two findings complement the earlier stunning discovery of a yajña kuṇḍda with an octagonal brick pillar. Such an octagonal pillar is referred to as aṣṭāśri yupa in ancient Vedic texts. Binjor Yupa of Sarasvati Vaidika civilization is yajñasya ketu (RV 3.8.8), a proclamation emblem of performance of a Soma Samsthā yajña. Such a yajña yields bahusuvarṇakam; 'many gold pieces' and thus, a wealth-producing metallurgical enterprise performed with śraddhā, 'dedication, devotion' and prayers. caṣāla is a unique metallurgical technique documented in the Veda texts to infuse carbon into metal in furnaces to harden the metal or to produced hardened alloys. caṣāla is godhūma, fumes of wheat chaff which infuse angāra, 'carbon'. The expression caṣāla 'wheat chaff fume' is signified by the sacred hieroglyph of caṣāla 'snout of varāha.'
In Bengali, the signifier abhijñān denotes ‘a token of recognition.’ The term also has embedded within it the notion of abhijñā or ‘memory’ and abhijña, or the ‘expert,’ the ‘wise,’ and the ‘experienced.’ These significations, overt and covert, are mobilized in this volume to pay tribute to an ‘amateur’ archaeologist, i.e., an archeologist not trained in the discipline but one whose amour or love for archaeology has rendered him abhijña as the ‘expert,’ the ‘wise,’ and the ‘experienced.’ As a collection of eighteen research papers on South Asian archaeology and art history of artefacts, contributed by twenty-two scholars from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Italy and Germany, this volume of specially commissioned essays seeks to be a token of recognition that remembers and felicitates an expert, wise and experienced archeologist from Bangladesh, whose name is Abul Kalam Muhammad Zakariah.
2020
This research is part of a wider scientific Italian-Indo project aiming to shed lights on pottery fabrication and trade circulation in the South India (Tamil Nadu region) during Early Historical Period. The recent archaeological excavations carried out in Alagankulam, a famous harbour trading with the eastern and western world, and Keeladi, the most ancient civilization centre attested in Tamil Nadu region, provided numerous fragments of archaeological ceramics, including fine ware and coarse ware potteries. Up to the typological studies, different classes of potteries were recognised, suggesting the presence of local productions and possible imports and imitations. Studied materials include common Indian products, i.e. black-and-red table wares and water jugs, along with red slipped wares, rouletted ware, northern black polished ware, which provenance identification is still debated in the current literature. In fact, for long time, the misattribution of several ceramic classes has...
Stone Beads of South and Southeast Asia
Stone Beads of South and Southeast Asia: Archaeology, Ethnography and Global Connections is by far the most comprehensive book on stone beads. With contributions from 25 leading scholars from 17 research institutions of eight countries, the book dwells on related matter from ancient as well as modern India and other regions of South Asia. Stone beads have gained the reputation of being one of the most important markers of prehistoric technological complexity, especially in South Asia. Their study is crucial for understanding our past contacts, technology and trade, besides comprehending our mastery over material culture and the procurement of diverse raw materials. Keeping this in mind, this book discusses, with the help of literary and epigraphical references, the development of stone beads through the ages, the utility and fruitfulness of typologies, the techniques historically used in their production and finally the modern scientific procedures which can be used in their study to better understand and interpret the past technology. It also deals with ethnohistorical studies of Khambhat (Cambay) to understand the historical development of the city—the most prominent traditional stone bead industry of the world—since the crafts started there, and ethnographical studies to know the symbolism behind the aggressive use of particular products. The combined output of this book is a result of long-term fieldwork and experimental and scientific studies in laboratories in not only answering the statics of beads like 'when' and 'where' but also cognitivism, that is, 'why' and 'how'.