The ground-breaking Two Rains Project centered at Cambridge University is presenting a 7 event conference across 7 weeks online.
Jonathan Mark Kenoyer's Deccan College Lecture on April 10 2021 goes into the earliest evidence of textiles in the greater Indus Valley, from Mehrgarh in 7000 BCE through Indus times, digging into the specific varieties of cotton, linen, flax and other plant fibers and even colours used.
Very little is known about the subcontinent's history hundreds of thousands of years ago, say 300,000-30,000 years ago, which would have been the Middle Paleolithic period for example, except for small clues left at
An audio interview with Dr. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer with Wisconsin Public Radio explores his work and discoveries at Harappa, where stone tools suggest the area was inhabited as early as 10,000 BCE. An fine hour of highlights and key finds around crops, animals and culture and evidence for the earliest curries and writing.
A wide-ranging, illustrated talk on bioarchaeology and climate change, and the many misconceptions people have about the latter. In the case of the ancient Indus Valley civilization for example, the inhabitants demonstrated many strategies for dealing with varying environmental conditions, so that attributing the decline of the civilization to climate change is likely incomplete.
An exciting find, not only because this is the first foodstuff preserved in such excellent condition, but also for the continuity with today, is this Times of India article on multi-grain, high-protein laddos found at the 4MSR site in Rajasthan on the border with Pakistan.
The results of two seasons of excavations 2012-2014 at a small site to the west of Rakigarhi in Rajasthan, on the modern River Chautang (Drishdavati). Largely destroyed by irrigation construction a few years previously – "it can now be assessed that at least 70% of the fortified settlement was destroyed" write the authors (p. 16) – Karanpura has nevertheless yielded an impressive set of artifacts from about 2800-2000 BCE.
The keynote lecture at the University of Kerala's March 2021 international webinar on Indus Civilization by Dr. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer (University of Wisconsin, Madison). An in-depth, fully illustrated look at ornamentation, ideology and its role across the wider Indus Valley, from the carnelian that comes from Gujarat that was worked on at sites like Harappa, to the steatite from Hazara that was worked on in areas far to the south.
An illustrated review of archaeological history and perspective in India from its origins in colonial times through Independence. The role of museums and politics in formulating archaeological practice and display, and how colonial practice remains current in the way we look at the ancient Indus civilization.
A stunning VW Bug by the Pakistani folk artist Haider Ali in Sindh.
