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.
March 7th, 2021
A stunning VW Bug by the Pakistani folk artist Haider Ali in Sindh.
The intriguing question this paper takes on is whether or not chert blade (also known as flint, used for lighting fires) production could have taken place here, 500 km as the crow flies from the Rohri Flint Quarries, a massive site with evidence for mining going back hundreds of thousands of years and covered in detail by numerous scholars.
