Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia

Contents: Introduction. I. History of research: 1. Early historical in Indian archaeology: some definitional problems/B.D. Chattopadhyaya. 2. Archaeology of early historic South Asia: a review/Jaya Menon. 3. Pataliputra: the changing perceptions of a site/Bishnupriya Basak. II. Methodological issues: 3. Is archaeology a reliable approach for studying the historical period of India?/K. Paddayya. 4. Hellenism in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands: images from archaeology and text/Suchandra Ghosh. 5. Early historic sites in Western India: a geo and bio archaeological perspective/B.C. Deotare, Sushama G. Deo, P.P. Joglekar, Savita Ghate and S.N. Rajaguru. 6. Artefacts and natural site formation of the early historic sites in Rupnarayan-Hugli Estuary, West Bengal: some preliminary observations/Kaushik Gangopadhyay. 7. Site function/site hierarchy/urban or rural: a case study of Bengal Delta/Sharmi Chakraborty. III. Genesis and spread of urban process: 8. Genesis and spread of urban process in the gangetic plain/Vibha Tripathi. 9. Mineral resource zone around gangetic plains: a vital factor for urbanisation in middle Ganga Plain/Prabhakar Upadhyay. 10. Urban centres in North India in the sixth century BC/P.K. Basant. 11. The absence of urban centres in early historic Kathiawad/Supriya Varma. 12. Urban centres in Western India: a study across time and space/Atusha Bharucha Irani. 13. Contexts and contents of early historic sites in the South Bihar Plains: an archaeological perspective/R.K. Chattopadhyay and Rajat Sanyal. 14. Human occupation in Bangladesh during early historic period: an overview/M.M. Hoque. 15. Tilpi: a preliminary report/Gautam Sengupta, Sambhu Chakrabarty, and Sharmi Chakraborty. 16. Urban centres: Deccan/Aloka Parasher-Sen. 17. Genesis and development of urban processes in the ancient/early historic Tamil Country/V. Selvakumar and S. Darsana. IV. Technology and material culture: 18. Megalithic and early historic metalwork in Southern India: some issues of technology, emergence and transmission/Sharada Srinivasan. 19. Metals in early history: a review of the mid-lower Ganga Plains Ambiance/Pranab K. Chattopadhyay and Nupur Dasgupta. 20. Ceramics of the iron age - early historic period in Tamil Nadu and Kerala/V. Selvakumar. 21. Indian architecture: towards a paradigm shift/Kurush F. Dalal. 22. Mahurjhari: a bead manufacturing centre in Central India/R.K. Mohanty. 23. Pattern of patronage and early Buddhist Art of Amaravati/Sima Roy Chowdhury. 24. Who were the donors of the early Mathura sculptures? What was their social status?/Gouriswar Bhattacharya. 25. Buddhist sealings and the ye Dharma Stanza/Peter Skilling. V. Archaeology and exchange: 26. Emergence of trade in early historic Peninsular India/K. Rajan. 27. Bengal and the Indian ocean maritime trade network during the early historic period/Shahnaj Husne Jahan. 28. Coins as a medium of exchange and their relation with trade/Susmita Basu Majumdar. Index.

"The book focuses on the present state of our understanding of archaeology of the early historic period. It explores archaeological methods -- aims, objectives and practices. It addresses key issues that are traditionally associated with early historic archaeology. It tries to understand the changes that have taken place in the past decades due to the emergence of new issues, theories and methods. Through thirty essays arranged in five sections the book charts through the various issues of early historic archaeology of the subcontinent. The reader will get an idea of the scope and evolution of this sub-discipline, use of natural sciences in understanding the processes of early history, relevance of text-aided archaeology, recent trends in study of different artefacts, problems related to early urbanization and exchange mechanisms, etc. The volume would be useful for readers interested in the history of the early South Asia." (jacket)