Evolution

A BOOK REVIEW of Asko Parpola's investigation of twin roots of Hinduism, the religion brought to South Asia in the second millennium BCE by speakers of Aryan or Indo-Iranian languages, and the more enigmatic Indus civilization of the third millennium BCE. With a note by Iravatham Mahadevan. >

It spreads over an area of more than a million sq km, an area much bigger than the Mesopotamian and the Egyptian Civilizations which are famous for their sepulchral splendor. Though technologically innovative, the Indus Civilization in marked by a modesty and the functionality of its architecture and artifacts. >

This is the first book to focus on the role of Southern Asia and Australia in our understanding of modern human origins and the expansion of Homo sapiens between East Africa and Australia before 30,000 years ago. >

Once in a while a book comes along that so radically shifts your perspective and ways of thinking about a complex subject that it can only be called breathtaking. Against the Grain A Deep History of the Earliest States (2017), by Yale Agrarian Studies Professor James C. Scott is one such book. >

An exceptional, beautifully illustrated book of over 200 pieces in the Japanese Katolec Corporation collection of pottery and associated art of the pre- and contemporary to ancient Indus Nal and Kulli cultures of the 3rd millennium BCE Balochistan. The photography is excellent, the specimens extraordinary. >

There is so much going on in DNA studies – even if pre-figured by linguistic studies – that having a solid guide to stitch it all together, including papers that landed with a giant thud in 2018, would be so very, very nice. Someone who could put it together for the layman or intelligent observer who finds it hard to sort through headlines and the latest pronouncements (and simplifications). >