April 3rd, 2021
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. Dr. Schug deals with more than the ancient Indus civilization, but also looks at Indus sites and some of the recent finds at Sinauli.
March 27th, 2021
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.
A 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.
Dr. Guha's scholarly article Decolonizing South Asia through Heritage- and Nation- Building which is the basis of this talk is also available.
