Reading Archaeological Evidence Ceramic and Terracotta Production at Indor Khera, Uttar Pradesh (200 BCE–500 CE)
TL;DR: In the early historic period, the focus has largely been on stray artefacts rather than documenting other kinds of evidence such as debitage or waste, although more contextual information on craft production from sites excavated more recently as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: While substantial work has been done on Harappan crafts from the point of view of technological processes, spatial contexts and organisation, there is hardly anything that is known about aspects of technology and production in the early historic period. For the latter, the focus has largely been on stray artefacts rather than documenting other kinds of evidence such as debitage or waste, although more contextual information on craft production in the early historic period is beginning to emerge from sites excavated more recently. This, however, is still fragmentary in nature, in contrast to the archaeological evidence on ceramic and terracotta production that we have been able to retrieve from the site of Indor Khera in the upper Ganga plains between the period 200 BCE and 500 CE. This is in the form of tools, such as anvils, socket stones, pottery stamps, bone engravers, stone polishers; firing facilities; lumps, rolls and pellets of clay and terracotta that represent raw material used for various proces...
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Book Chapter•
01 Jan 2018
TL;DR: The earliest urban centres emerged in the third millennium BCE in the northwestern parts of the subcontinent, most of these cities and towns were abandoned around 1900 BCE as mentioned in this paper and after a gap of nearly 1400 years, urban centres re-emerged not just in the northwest but also in the Gangetic valley in north India around 500 BCE.
Abstract: While the earliest urban centres emerged in the third millennium BCE in the northwestern parts of the subcontinent, most of these cities and towns were abandoned around 1900 BCE. After a gap of nearly 1400 years, urban centres re-emerged not just in the northwest but also in the Gangetic valley in north India around 500 BCE. The term ‘Early Historic’ refers to a chronological period spanning in north India from approximately 500 BCE till about 500 CE. In contrast to the northwest, numerous Early Historic urban centres emerged in north India and many of these have been excavated. Despite the large number of excavations, we know far less about the Early Historic urban centres as compared to what we know of the Harappan cities. This lacuna is largely related to the kind of excavations that have been carried at most of these Early Historic sites. What is even more noteworthy is that even though nearly forty years ago, Amalananda Ghosh in the preface of his book, The City in Early Historical India, had written about the limited archaeological evidence on the Early Historic cities and towns, the situation is not any better even today.
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Cites background from "Reading Archaeological Evidence Cer..."
...12) firing facilities; lumps, rolls and pellets of clay and terracotta that represent raw material used for various processes and objects; deposits of sand used perhaps for tempering; unbaked artefacts; wasters or over-vitrified material; rejects or misshapen objects; as well as the variety of ceramic and terracotta artefacts that were being produced (Menon and Varma, 2010)....
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Book•
07 Jan 2010
3 citations
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: A revision of the previous edition article by G.L. Possehl, volume 22, pp. 14612-14622, © 2001, Elsevier Ltd. as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: This article is a revision of the previous edition article by G.L. Possehl, volume 22, pp. 14612–14622, © 2001, Elsevier Ltd.
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References
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01 Jan 1987
TL;DR: A rich and comprehensive sourcebook, "Pottery Analysis" draws together diverse approaches to the study of pottery - archaeological, ethnographic, stylistic, functional, and physicochemical as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: A rich and comprehensive sourcebook, "Pottery Analysis" draws together diverse approaches to the study of pottery - archaeological, ethnographic, stylistic, functional, and physicochemical. Prudence M. Rice uses pottery as a starting point for insights into people and culture and examines in detail the methods for studying these fired clay vessels that have been used worldwide from prehistoric times to the present. "Pottery Analysis" is a classic in its field as well as an invaluable reference for all students of archaeology and ancient culture.
1,138 citations
279 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1991TL;DR: For instance, the authors argues that humans differ from any other species on this planet in their extensive ability to transform the natural world in order to ease our existence in it. And they make tools that increase our effectiveness in procuring and preparing food, in securing shelter, and in producing the conditions and comforts of life that we now view as necessary for our survival.
Abstract: Humans differ from any other species on this planet in our extensive ability to transform the natural world in order to ease our existence in it. By shaping stone, wood, and clay we make tools that increase our effectiveness in procuring and preparing food, in securing shelter, and in producing the conditions and comforts of life that we now view as necessary for our survival. We also produce goods to ornament our homes and bodies, designed according to cultural rules of esthetics, as well as objects necessary for the acknowledgment or ritual enactment of our religious beliefs.
247 citations
TL;DR: The stone beadmaking industry of Khambhat, India, provides a modern example of a traditional specialized craft that is practised by different communities within a highly stratified society as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Archaeologists studying early urban societies have long used the concept of craft specialization as an important indicator of social stratification, centralized control of production and indirectly, state level organization. However, new interpretive models need to be developed in order to understand socio‐economic developments in the prehistoric period. The stone beadmaking industry of Khambhat, India, provides a modern example of a traditional specialized craft that is practised by different communities within a highly stratified society. Furthermore, there is a considerable degree of centralized control in production and various levels of state control are present. Preliminary results of the ethnoarchaeological and experimental studies of the stone bead industry in Khambhat are used to examine the concept of craft specialization and to suggest new ways of applying this concept to prehistoric studies.
102 citations
Book•
27 Apr 1984
TL;DR: In this article, a critical examination of some of the ideas of Marx and Levi-Strauss C. A. Gregory and M. Bate is presented in the context of early states in the Turanian Basin.
Abstract: Part I. Introduction: 1. Another way of telling: Marxist perspectives in archaeology Matthew Spriggs Part II. Situating the Economic: 2. The economy and kinship: a critical examination of some of the ideas of Marx and Levi-Strauss C. A. Gregory 3. The motion of craft specialization and its presentation in the archaeological record of early states in the Turanian Basin Maurizio Tosi 4. Towards the quantification of productive forces in archaeology Luis F. Bate Part III. Representation and Ideology: 5. Social change, ideology and the archaeological record Michael Parker Pearson 6. Ideology and material culture: an archaeological perspective Kristian Kristiansen 7. The spirit and its burden: archaeology and symbolic activity Susan Kus 8. Objectivity and subjectivity Mike Rowlands Part IV. Social Transformations: 9. Explaining the Upper Palaeolithic Revolution Antonio Gilman 10. Force, history and the evolutionist paradigm Phil Kohl 11. The transformation of Asiatic formations: the case of late Prehispanic Mesoamerica John Gledhill Part V. Epilogue 12. A consideration of ideology Peter Gathercole Index.
100 citations