Download or read book The Archaeology of Ancient Indian Cities written by Dilip K. Chakrabarti and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1995 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a definitive archaeological perspective on the history of early urban growth in India. It does this by looking at both the protohistoric and the early historic periods, coming down to about AD 300 and later. Geographically, it covers all the major areas of the subcontinent. The existing archaeological data have been synthesized to yield a comprehensive picture of the morphology of ancient sites and their place within what is currently known of their settlement perspectives. This book addresses itself to some of the cardinal issues of South Asian archaeology - the origin and decline of the Indus civilization; the issue of its merger in the main flow of India's later cultural development; the archaeological basis of its long chronology; aspects of Indus urbanism; the reasons for the growth of neolithic-chalcolithic inner India; and the patterns and problems of urban growth in the early historic period on the subcontinental scale. In each case the author's concern is with understanding the situation at the grassroots level within an essentially South Asian framework. The hypotheses offered in this book should lead to some major rethinking about the story of archaeological development in the subcontinent.
Download or read book The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia written by Frank Raymond Allchin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995-09-07 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the cities and states of South Asia between c.800BC and AD 250.
Download or read book The Archaeology of an Early Historic Town in Central India written by Monica L. Smith and published by British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited. This book was released on 2001 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The case study offered in this book is based upon an archaeological examination of the Early Historic town site of Kaundinyapura in central India. In the Early Historic period (third century BC to fourth century AD) the Indian subcontinent presents widespread evidence for long-distance exchange in durable goods at a time when political entities were relatively short-lived and had few resources to invest in the facilitation of exchange. Despite a lack of centrally provided economic infrastructure, the communities of the subcontinent shared a material culture that demonstrated communication about style as well as the physical movement of objects. Even small towns like Kaundinyapura were participants in these patterns of regional exchange, in which households engaged in production and distribution activities that enabled them to maintain links with the wider region through the consumption of a shared corpus of material goods.
Download or read book The Archaeology of South Asia written by Robin Coningham and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-31 with total page 557 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a critical synthesis of the archaeology of South Asia from the Neolithic period (c.6500 BCE), when domestication began, to the spread of Buddhism accompanying the Mauryan Emperor Asoka's reign (third century BCE). The authors examine the growth and character of the Indus civilisation, with its town planning, sophisticated drainage systems, vast cities and international trade. They also consider the strong cultural links between the Indus civilisation and the second, later period of South Asian urbanism which began in the first millennium BCE and developed through the early first millennium CE. In addition to examining the evidence for emerging urban complexity, this book gives equal weight to interactions between rural and urban communities across South Asia and considers the critical roles played by rural areas in social and economic development. The authors explore how narratives of continuity and transformation have been formulated in analyses of South Asia's Prehistoric and Early Historic archaeological record.
Download or read book The City in Early Historical India written by Amalananda Ghosh and published by Simla : Indian Institute of Advanced Study. This book was released on 1973 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Companion to South Asia in the Past written by Gwen Robbins Schug and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-05-16 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to South Asia in the Past provides the definitive overview of research and knowledge about South Asia’s past, from the Pleistocene to the historic era in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, provided by a truly global team of experts. The most comprehensive and detailed scholarly treatment of South Asian archaeology and biological anthropology, providing ground-breaking new ideas and future challenges Provides an in-depth and broad view of the current state of knowledge about South Asia’s past, from the Pleistocene to the historic era in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal A comprehensive treatment of research in a crucial region for human evolution and biocultural adaptation A global team of scholars together present a varied set of perspectives on South Asian pre- and proto-history
Download or read book The Social Construction of Ancient Cities written by Monica L. Smith and published by Smithsonian Institution. This book was released on 2013-04-09 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What made ancient cities successful? What are the similarities between modern cities and ancient ones? The Social Construction of Ancient Cities offers a fresh perspective on ancient cities and the social networks and relations that built and sustained them, marking a dramatic change in the way archaeologists approach them. Examining ancient cities from a “bottom up” perspective, the authors in this volume explore the ways in which cities were actually created by ordinary inhabitants. They track the development of urban space from the point of view of individuals and households, providing new insights into cities' roles as social centers as well as focal points of political and economic activities. Analyzing various urban communities from residences and neighborhoods to marketplaces and ceremonial plazas, the authors examine urban centers in Africa, Mesoamerica, South America, Mesopotamia, the Indian subcontinent, and China. Collectively they demonstrate how complex networks of social relations and structures gave rise to the formation of ancient cities, contributed to their cohesion, and sustained their growth, much as they do in modern urban centers. The authors' analyses draw from ancient texts as well as archaeological surveys and excavations of urban architecture and other material remains, including portable objects for daily use and comestibles. They show clearly how early urban dwellers consciously developed dense interdependent social networks to satisfy their needs for food, housing, and employment, forged their own urban identities, and generally managed to thrive in the crowded, bustling, and competitive environment that characterized ancient cities. Not least of all, they suggest how urban leaders and urban dwellers negotiated a consensus that enabled them to achieve both mundane and extraordinary goals, in the process establishing their unique ritual, legal, and social status.
Download or read book The Archaeology of South Asia written by Robin Coningham and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-31 with total page 557 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book synthesises the archaeology of South Asia from the Neolithic period (c.6500 BCE) to the third century BCE.
Download or read book Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia written by Gautam Sengupta and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Papers presented at a seminar organized and held in Calcutta, India.
Download or read book A Prehistory of Ordinary People written by Monica L. Smith and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2021-11-23 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the past million years, individuals have engaged in multitasking as they interact with the surrounding environment and with each other for the acquisition of daily necessities such as food and goods. Although culture is often perceived as a collective process, it is individual people who use language, experience illness, expend energy, perceive landscapes, and create memories. These processes were sustained at the individual and household level from the time of the earliest social groups to the beginnings of settled agricultural communities and the eventual development of complex societies in the form of chiefdoms, states, and empires. Even after the advent of “civilization” about 6,000 years ago, human culture has for the most part been created and maintained not by the actions of elites—as is commonly proclaimed by many archaeological theorists—but by the many thousands of daily actions carried out by average citizens. With this book, Monica L. Smith examines how the archaeological record of ordinary objects—used by ordinary people—constitutes a manifestation of humankind’s cognitive and social development. A Prehistory of Ordinary People offers an impressive synthesis and accessible style that will appeal to archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, and others interested in the long history of human decision-making.
Download or read book An Archaeological History of Indian Buddhism written by Lars Fogelin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-02 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Archaeological History of Indian Buddhism is a comprehensive survey of Indian Buddhism from its origins in the 6th century BCE, through its ascendance in the 1st millennium CE, and its eventual decline in mainland South Asia by the mid-2nd millennium CE. Weaving together studies of archaeological remains, architecture, iconography, inscriptions, and Buddhist historical sources, this book uncovers the quotidian concerns and practices of Buddhist monks and nuns (the sangha), and their lay adherents--concerns and practices often obscured in studies of Buddhism premised largely, if not exclusively, on Buddhist texts. At the heart of Indian Buddhism lies a persistent social contradiction between the desire for individual asceticism versus the need to maintain a coherent community of Buddhists. Before the early 1st millennium CE, the sangha relied heavily on the patronage of kings, guilds, and ordinary Buddhists to support themselves. During this period, the sangha emphasized the communal elements of Buddhism as they sought to establish themselves as the leaders of a coherent religious order. By the mid-1st millennium CE, Buddhist monasteries had become powerful political and economic institutions with extensive landholdings and wealth. This new economic self-sufficiency allowed the sangha to limit their day-to-day interaction with the laity and begin to more fully satisfy their ascetic desires for the first time. This withdrawal from regular interaction with the laity led to the collapse of Buddhism in India in the early-to-mid 2nd millennium CE. In contrast to the ever-changing religious practices of the Buddhist sangha, the Buddhist laity were more conservative--maintaining their religious practices for almost two millennia, even as they nominally shifted their allegiances to rival religious orders. This book also serves as an exemplar for the archaeological study of long-term religious change through the perspectives of practice theory, materiality, and semiotics.
Download or read book Connections and Complexity written by Shinu Anna Abraham and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-16 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This compilation of original research articles highlight the important cross-regional, cross-chronological, and comparative approaches to political and economic landscapes in ancient South Asia and its neighbors. Focusing on the Indus Valley period and Iron Age India, this volume incorporates new research in South Asia within the broader universe of archaeological scholarship. Contributions focus on four major themes: reinterpreting material culture; identifying domains and regional boundaries; articulating complexity; and modeling interregional interaction. These studies develop theoretical models that may be applicable researchers studying cultural complexity elsewhere in the world.
Download or read book Archaeological Excavations in Central India written by Om Prakash Misra and published by Mittal Publications. This book was released on 2003 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Social Theory in Archaeology and Ancient History written by Geoff Emberling and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-24 with total page 638 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At a time when archaeology has turned away from questions of the long-term and large scale, this collection of essays reflects on some of the big questions in archaeology and ancient history - how and why societies have grown in scale and complexity, how they have maintained and discarded aspects of their own cultural heritage, and how they have collapsed. In addressing these long-standing questions of broad interest and importance, the authors develop counter-narratives - new ways of understanding what used to be termed 'cultural evolution'. Encompassing the Middle East and Egypt, India, Southeast Asia, Australia, the American Southwest and Mesoamerica, the fourteen essays offer perspectives on long-term cultural trajectories; on cities, states and empires; on collapse; and on the relationship between archaeology and history. The book concludes with a commentary by one of the major voices in archaeological theory, Norman Yoffee.
Download or read book Buddhist Landscapes in Central India written by Julia Shaw and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-08-12 with total page 1029 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The “monumental bias” of Buddhist archaeology has hampered our understanding of the socio-religious mechanisms that enabled early Buddhist monks to establish themselves in new areas. To articulate these relationships, Shaw presents here the first integrated study of settlement archaeology and Buddhist history, carried out in the area around Sanchi, a Central Indian UNESCO World Heritage site. Her comprehensive, data-rich, and heavily illustrated work provides an archaeological basis for assessing theories regarding the dialectical relationship between Buddhism and surrounding lay populations. It also sheds light on the role of the introduction of Buddhism in changing settlement patterns.This volume was originally published in 2007 by the British Association of South Asian Studies.
Download or read book ABIA South and Southeast Asian Art and Archaeology Index written by Sita Pieris and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-11-19 with total page 897 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume Three offers 1643 annotated records on publications regarding the art and archaeology of South Asia, Central Asia and Tibet selected from the ABIA Index database at www.abia.net which were published between 2002 and 2007.
