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Wednesdays Weekly during Term
2
Lecture Theatre G6, Institute of Archaeology
31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY
6:00 pm; Drinks: 7:00 pm
Co-ordinator: Dr Vivek Nanda
Supported by the Social and Cultural Dynamics Research Group
10th January: How many agricultural origins in South Asia?
Dr Dorian Fuller (Institute of
Archaeology, UCL)
Discussants: Dr A Garrard, Prof D Harris, Dr J Hather, Dr K Thomas (Institute
of Archaeology, UCL)
Archaeological research, including the evidence of archaeobotany and archaeozoology, is providing an increasing database for understanding early agriculture in India. To what extent does this put differet regions of India on the map as centres of domestication or confirm them as regions where agriculture diffused secondarilly? The state of the evidence and questions it raises will be considered from South, North, East and Northwest South Asia.
17th January: The Bannu Archaeological Project: Prehistoric and Historic Period Settlement on the North-West Frontier of Pakistan.
Mr J R Knox, Dr K.D. Thomas,
Dr C R Cartwright & Mr J C Morris (The British Museum / Institute of Archaeology,
UCL)
Discussants: Dr D. Fuller, Dr V Nanda, Dr N Khan (Institute of Archaeology,
UCL)
1. Bannu in context: environments
and geography. KDT
2. Prehistoric settlement systems in Bannu. KDT
3. Sheri Khan Tarakai: a new culture horizon in Bannu -and beyond. KDT
4. Studies of lithic technology, with special reference to Sheri Khan Tarakai.
JCM
5. Wood charcoals from prehistoric sites in Bannu: past environments and resources.
CRC
6. Historic period settlement in Bannu: along the Lohra from Ter Kala Dheri
to Akra. JRK
7. Akra: a major urban settlement in Bannu and its external connections. JRK
24th January: I. Ahar Culture and Recent Excavations at Balathal, Rajasthan.
Dr R K Mohanty (Deccan College,
Pune, India)
(Charles Wallace Visiting Fellow)
Discussants: Dr Dorian Fuller, Dr V. Nanda, Dr K. Thomas (Institute of Archaeology,
UCL)
About 90 Ahar culture sites have been discovered in the Mewar region of Southeast Rajasthan (predominantly in the districts of Udaipur, Chittaurgarh, Bhilwara, Dungarpur, Bhundi, Tonk and Ajmer). So far excavations have been carried out in only three sites - Ahar, Gilund and Balathal. Seven seasons of excavation at Balathal have provided several new insights regarding the autonomy, regionality and reciprocity of this culture within the wider Harappan phenomenon in western India. The overall evidence from the excavation strongly suggests the existence of an agro-pastoral economy supplemented by hunting and gathering.
II. Archaeology of Mahasthan - An Early Historic and Early Medieval Urban Centre in Bangladesh
Dr S.S.M. Rahman (Jahangirnagar
University, Bangladesh)
(Charles Wallace Visiting Fellow)
Discussants: As above
The Mahasthan region of Bogra district occupies a significant place in Bangladesh archaeology. This region, associated with the ancient city-state of Paundravardhana, witnessed significant urban developments from the early historic period through to the early medieval period. Although the region has revealed substantial material evidence / data, no archaeological research project has so far attempted a comprehensive study of the prevailing social, political, religious and economic organisations. The region has in fact received very little scholastic attention until recently. The present research project, under Dr Rahman's PhD programme, attempts a systematic documentation of the early historic and early medieval sites in relation to their ecological setting, a reconstruction of the cultural sequence, an investigation of the cultural materials in the regional context and an understanding of the settlement patterns.
31st January: Adventures in the Tin Trade - Ancient Copper and Bronze in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands
Professor Vincent C. Pigott (Institute
of Archaeology, UCL)
Discussants: Dr John Curtis (The British Museum), Professor T Rehren, Dr H Crawford
(Institute of Archaeology, UCL)
When archaeological discussion turns
to issues surrounding the origins of metallurgy, the Iranian Plateau as a source
area for such technological developments has rarely received the attention it
deserves. As a metallogenic zone its mineral riches rival those of neighbouring
Anatolia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Afghanistan and South Asia. Substantial
archaeological excavation, survey, and analytical programs carried out by Iranian
and foreign teams alike has contributed a significant body of information on
the development of early metal-working technology on the Plateau.
In this seminar archaeological and metallurgical evidence from important metalworking
sites will be discussed with a focus on Iran and looking to the east towards
South Asia. An overview of current evidence regarding major developments in
Plateau metallurgy including the advent of arsenical copper production and the
appearance of tin-bronze will be presented. These are important developments
for ancient South Asia as well, in particular the potential role of the Harappans
as middlemen involved in the tin trade which, it is argued by various scholars,
moved through the Gulf and Elam in Iran to Mesopotamian consumers. To conclude
the seminar, if time permits, the results of a recently completed program of
analysis of copper-base metal artefacts from the on-going excavations at Harappa
will be presented.
7th February: The Indian Textile Trade East and West - The archaeological record to date
Dr John Guy (Deputy Head, Indian
and Southeast Asian Department, Victoria & Albert Museum)
Discussants: Dr H Ginsburg (The British Library), Dr K. Wright, Dr V Nanda (Institute
of Archaeology, UCL)
This seminar will present the work
done to date in reconstructing the historical record of the Indian painted cotton
textile trade. This study is informed by both historical sources and by the
study of the actual textiles which formed the staple of this trade. The application
of accelerated radio-carbon 14 tests to fibre samples taken from cloths recovered
from the Middles East and island Southeast Asia has advanced our understanding
of dating issues.
The presentation will be supported by slides of the textiles employed in this
historical trade. These artefacts formed the basis of the cloth-for-spices commerce
that underpinned much of the motivation for Asian maritime commercial expansion
and for the later European interventions to 'discover' the Spiceries.
14th February: Careers of ‘Yakshi’ Reflections on the Practices of Archaeology and Art History in Modern India>
Dr Tapati Guha Thakurtha (Centre
for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta)
Discussants: Dr C Pinney (University College London), Dr G Tillotson (School
of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) Dr S Panja (Calcutta),
Dr N Merriman, Ms B Butler (Institute of Archaeology, UCL)
The paper revolves around the modern life of an antique art object, canonised in recent history as one of the masterpieces of ancient Indian sculpture. It takes up the case of the sculpted icon, now widely known as the "Didarganj Yakshi", probing the shifting locations, discourses and aesthetic trajectories that marked the metamorphosis of the piece from a curious archaeological "antiquity" to a celebrated "art-object" of the Indian nation, and later even into a "travelling emissary of ancient Indian art and culture". It follows its career from the time of its initial recovery and transference to the provincial museum in Patna in 1917, to its removal (on loan) to New Delhi in 1947 to grace the landmark exhibition of the "Masterpieces of Indian Art" that the capital hosted on the occasion of Independence, to its later journeys abroad in the 1980s as a part of the Festival of India exhibitions in England and U.S.A. This spectrum of the ‘Yakshi’s' travels opens up the different sites and practices in the formation of an official national canon of Indian art - it helps us, in particular, to map over the 20th century the changing colonial, national and international stature of the subject of Indian art history. The paper also wishes to explore the theme of an " endangered" object that have in various ways been inscribed into the modern life of the 'Yakshi' (as with many such 'works of art') - beginning from the time she had to be forcibly wrested from her unauthorised village worshippers by colonial officials and placed in museum custody, to the new national outrage over its damage that erupted in the aftermath of its return from the Festival of India exhibition in U.S.A. This underlines the clash of contending claims and the politics of location and possession that have attended the archaeological restitution and art historical consecration of such objects.
21st February: I. A Chronological Framework for Gandhara - The Numismatic, Archaeological and Art Historical Evidence
Dr Elizabeth Errington (The
British Museum)
Discussants: Dr J Cribb (BM), Mr Mike Corfield (English Heritage), Dr V. Nanda,
Dr J. Tanner (Institute of Archaeology, UCL)
Following John Marshall's interpretation of the archaeological evidence from Taxila, Buddhism is traditionally thought to have flourished in Gandhara from the time of Asoka (3rd century BC) until the Hun invasions of the 5th century AD. This lecture assesses the validity of this view in the light of evidence from other sites. It also discusses how the coin finds and such recent discoveries as a definitive date for Kanishka I can now be used to provide a chronological framework for dating Gandhara sculpture.
II. Kashmir Smast - A Natural Cave in Gandhara: Recent Discoveries
Dr N Khan (University of Peshawar,
Pakistan)
(Charles Wallace Visiting Fellow)
Discussants: As above
Since its discovery, the Kashmir Smast cave complex has been subjected to illegal looting. Antiquities from the site now form part of various private collections in South Asia, Japan and Europe. This seminar attempts a comprehensive overview of the rich, unique and diverse character of the regional traditions. The speaker presents recently discovered artefacts - paintings and sculpture - from the site and locale (leading to the cave) and assembles materials from various private collections. The speaker wishes to draw attention to the urgent measures necessary by local authorities and law enforcing agencies to preserve the cultural heritage of the region.
28th February: "Come Flying! Images of Buddha at Dunhuang!
Professor Roderick Whitfield
(School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London)
Discussants: Dr Wang Tao (School of Oriental and African Studies, University
of London), Dr V Nanda, Dr J Tanner (Institute of Archaeology, UCL)
The Buddhist cave temples at the
Mogao caves, near Dunhuang in Gansu province, were created over a period of
almost a thousand years, from the 4th to the 14th centuries AD. Mural paintings,
stucco images and paintings on silk and ramie cloth found at the site, preserved
by the dry climate, constitute a vast record of the introduction of Buddhist
art to China and its development there. A number of image types are specifically
related to their Indian prototypes, and some are said to be feilai, that is
to have arrived 'by flying.' The lecture will concern some of these and the
models from which they may have derived.
Recommended reading: R. Whitfield et al., Cave Temples of Mogao: Art and History
on the Silk Road. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2000.
7th March: South Asia Marine Archaeology Project Boats of South Asia - Ethnography leading to Archaeology
Professor Sean McGrail (University
of Southampton), Dr Eric Kentley (The Design Museum, London);
Discussants: Dr J Hather, Dr D Fuller (Institute of Archaeology, UCL)
Between 1994 and 2000, six seasons of fieldwork have been undertaken along India’s Bay of Bengal coast and in the Sylhet District of Bangladesh, funded by the Society for South Asian Studies, the University of Southampton and the National Maritime Museum. In this presentation we shall describe two of the traditional boat types that were documented, and consider how such fieldwork may not only help lay the foundations for maritime archaeology in South Asia, but also provide evidence relevant to the maritime archaeology of medieval Europe.
14th March : Archaeology of the "Deccan Routes"
Dr D Chakrabarti (University
of Cambridge)
Discussants: Dr J McGlade, Dr V Nanda (Institute of Archaeology, UCL), Dr S.S.
Rahman (Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh)
(Charles Wallace Visiting Fellow)
Dakshinapatha or ‘the Deccan Routes’
stands for the routes between the Gangetic plains and the Deccan. The Deccan
region itself has two sections - western Deccan or Maharashtra and eastern Deccan
or Andhra. The importance of these routes is obvious in Indian history, however,
they have not yet been related to the ground.
In pursuance of his interest in the ancient historical geography of the Ganga
plains, Dilip Chakrabarti has been studying these routes in the field for the
last two years. It will be some time before the work is complete, but what has
already emerged is interesting in that it shows that all the major Gangetic
cities between Patna and Kanpur , i.e. Patna, Banaras, Allahabad and Kanpur,
were the key points, on the Gangetic side, of these routes.
21st March: Conservation of the bomb damaged murals at the sacred Tooth Relic Temple of Kandy, Sri Lanka
Mr Jagath Weerasinghe (Institute
of Archaeology, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka)
Discussants: Professor C Price, Dr G Palumbo, Dr K Tubb (Institute of Archaeology,
UCL)
The shrine for the sacred tooth
relic of Buddha, one of the most venerated places in Sri Lanka for Buddhists,
was bombed on 25th January 1998 by the LTTE guerrillas. Conserving the bomb-damaged
murals was both a technically demanding and politically sensitive exercise.
This presentation will elaborate on the methods and techniques used to restore
the 200 year old bomb damaged walls and murals of the tooth relic chamber of
the temple and the political issues involved in conserving the murals.
The adobe walls, made of unbaked clay bricks stacked within a lattice-structure
of wooden planks, were decorated with murals on the exterior, the interior and
the wooden ceilings. While some portions of the murals on the exterior date
from the early 20th century, the interior surfaces comprised several layers
dating as far back as the 17th century. The bomb explosion damaged almost all
of the painted surfaces on the exterior and more than 70 percent on the interior.
The impact of the explosion caused major structural damage to the brick walls
causing the splintering of the murals into hundreds of pieces. The methods and
techniques employed by the conservators to restore the murals involved both
modern and traditional materials. A large portion of the lecture will dwell
on these technical aspects. It will also discuss, briefly, the political and
social aspects that affected the management of the project. The project itself,
due to its high religious, social and political value, became a major national
and political issue; as such the restoration of the damaged murals was caught
in a severe political battle between the government in power, the opposition
and the fundamentalist factions attempting to rouse communal confrontation.
The project, however, reached successful completion earlier this year despite
media and political pressure.
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