Methodological Issues in Indian Archaeology

Contents: Preface. Part I. Introduction. 1. A note on the probable origin of the technique of edging burins. 2. Stone breaking and stone flaking. 3. Lithic studies: an overview. 4. New archaeology’s role in the emergence of quantitative methods. 5. The relevance of experimental approach in Indian prehistory. 6. Palaeo-ethnography vis-vis the stone age cultures of India: some methodological considerations. Part II. Introduction. 7. High level gravels and related palaeolithic sites of the Shorapur Doab, Peninsular India. 8. New research designs and field techniques in the palaeolithic archaeology of India. 9. The place of the study of site formation processes in prehistoric research in India. 10. Formation processes of the Acheulian localities in the Hunsgi and Baichbal Valleys, Peninsular India. 11. Natural and cultural formation processes of the  Acheulian sites of the Hunsgi and Baichbal Valleys, Karnataka. 12. Formation processes in Indian archaeology. 13. Importance of surface sites in Indian palaeolithic research: a case study from the Hunsgi and  Baichbal valleys, Karnataka. Index.

The thirteen essays making up this volume are a methodological complement to K. Paddayya’s essays in theoretical archaeology already published in two books entitled Multiple Approaches to the Study of India’s Early Past: Essays in Theoretical Archaeology (2014) and Revitalizing Indian Archaeology: Further Essays in Theoretical Archaeology (2016). The present anthology comprises writings dealing with certain general level as well as specific techniques and methods that are part of contemporary methodology employed for studying archaeological record. The first three essays in Part I deal with certain specific aspects of lithic technology and also underscore the fact that stone use is still common in India and that there is much that prehistorians could learn from it. The next essay argues that Lewis Binford triggered the use of quantitative methods in contemporary archaeology. The last two essays in this part emphasize the significance of experimental, ethnographic and ethno-primatological approaches in the interpretation of Stone Age archaeological record. Two major methodological issues pertaining to prehistoric archaeology in India run through the seven essays included in Part II. These are: a) need to shift the focus of field research from the discovery of secondary locations to the investigation of primary sites and consider these in a regional ecological framework and b) employment of formation processes for ascertaining the natural and cultural contexts of Stone Age sites. These approaches are an essential prerequisite for elevating prehistoric studies from a  preoccupation with what Mortimer Wheeler called ‘Stones’ and ‘More Stones’ to the reconstruction of cultures as functioning settlement systems. The volume concludes with a strong plea to accord a prominent place to much neglected surface sites in Stone Age research. It is to be hoped that these essays will go some way to motivate younger scholars to turn to prehistory as a challenging but fascinating endeavour that peeps into our remote and yet foundational past.