Brahmagiri

Brahmagiri is considered one of the most important archaeological sites in South India, primarily for it's position in the history of south Indian archaeology as the site which defined the sequence and chronology from the late Neolithic, through the Iron Age to the Early Historic period (Wheeler 1948). It was excavated by Sir Mortimer Wheeler in 1947, and ultimately became one of the most important and best known sites in the region.

View North-East from the slopes of Brahmagiri hill just above the Asokan Edict.

He chose to excavate there, based on the previous work of Dr. M.H. Krishna, hoping that it would show a long depth of chronology, as well as allow some connection between the ceramic sequence/chronology with the Asokan rock edicts, and the Russet Coated Painted Ware, or Andhra Ware, already cross dated with roman coins to the first centuries AD at Arikamedu (Wheeler 1946; Casal 1949; Begley 1996).

Since the site was dug long before radiocarbon dating, or any other method of secure absolute chronology, Wheeler presumed that the known date of the edicts would help him date the rest of the occupation. Though he managed to associate the rock edict with the black-and-red ware in the megalithic burials, and the same black-and-red ware in the habitation area, he vastly underestimated the amount of time that was represented by this ceramic type.

Recent re-analysis by Dr. Kathleen Morrison has shown that the site's chronology is indeed very deep, and that much of Wheeler's analysis of the ceramic sequence turns out to be problematic (Morrison 2005). Despite the early work done at Brahmagiri, it's prominence in archaeological writings on South India, and the recent work by Dr. Morrison, much research remains to be done.


The Asokan Rock Edict at Brahmagiri. Now enclosed in a concrete structure.

Close up of the Brahmi writing of the Asokan edict.
For the full set of pictures go here.

References:
Begley, V. (1996) Ancient Port of Arikamedu: New Excavations and Researches 1989-1992. École Française D'Extreme-Orient, Pondicherry.

Casal, J. M. (1949) Fouilles de Virampatnam-Arikamedu. Imprimerie Nationale, Paris.

Morrison, K. D. (2005) Brahamagiri Revisited: a Re-analysis of the South Indian Sequence. In South Asian Archaeology 2001, edited by C. Jarrige, & V. Lefèvre, Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations ADPF, Paris.

Wheeler, R. E. M., Ghosh, M. A., & Deva, K. (1946) Arikamedu - An Indo-Roman trading station on the east coast of India. Ancient India, 2: 17-124.

Wheeler, R. E. M. (1948) Brahmagiri and Chandravalli 1947: Megalithic and Other Cultures in the Chitaldrug District, Mysore State. Ancient India, 4: 181-310.

Brains....

Some interesting stuff in science news recently...

A new Homo erectus fossil shows that they probably had wide hips for babies with big heads.

Our brains are actually physically changed by learning... such that even if we forget, it's much easier to re-learn.

When Can I Buy the Pro-Bacterial soap?

So we are all suddenly being told (by ads on TV) to buy yogurt, because it's pro-biotic. And as much as I hate these marketing campaigns, they're right.

And even though we sort of knew that the human body had loads of healthy bacteria that help our bodies function properly, doctors kept prescribing anti-biotic drugs, and using anti-bacterial soap. No one seemed to notice the contradiction.

Perhaps we have vilified bacteria unfairly in the public sphere.

Based on some cool new research on how to prevent pneumonia induced by intubation/artificial respiration in the hospital, I think I see a paradigm shift comin' round the bend. I mean a really MAJOR paradigm shift, in the western approach to medicine and health in general.

We'll be washing, shampooing and brushing our teeth with our favorite co-evolved bacteria.

Maybe this means we'll be able to say goodbye to potentially pandemic-causing anti-biotic resistant diseases, not to mention the environmental destruction caused by anti-biotics and anti-bacterial soaps and cleaners. (This research has been pioneered by Dr. Rolf Halden, and you can check out his CV and massive list of publications with all the data to back it up.)

So basically this is the lesson to be learned: stop using anti-bacterial soaps and houshold products. Go back to regular old soap, it will do the job. And stop taking anti-biotics as much as possible. Hopefully, it won't be too long before we have pro-biotic soaps, sprays, powders, mouthwash, etc. Really, we should have known all along. The only way to fight the bugs, was with the mutualistic, co-evolved bugs we've been carrying along with us for all these millenia.

P.S. Thanks to Zach for the link to the NIH.

If you really love her... say it with tequila.

Ok, so I haven't blogged in a while. But I have been listening, reading and absorbing a random assortment of stuff, and I wanted to have a place (with more flexibility than del.icio.us) to link to things I enjoyed. Like a minimetafilter.

So here goes:

If anyone ever decides to buy me a diamond ring this is the only kind I would accept.
(New advertising tagline: Tequila can get you into her pants... permanently.)

Science Fiction

I recently picked up an old issue of Wired magazine, and was browsing it while eating lunch. Inside I found an article that stated a point I have been trying to make to friends and family for years: science fiction is the most philosophical and intellectually stimulating literature out there.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this. It's not that other kinds of fiction aren't interesting and great. But even when they're not sci-fi I still prefer books that don't deal entirely with what we perceive as reality.

I loved China Miéville's series that started with Perdido Street Station, and culminates in The Iron Council. It's not standard sci-fi. Miéville himself calls it weird fiction. Others have called it steampunk. But it's not the genre label that matters. What it does for the reader is pose a "what if" question, and explore the world that is parallel but different, in which something scientifically or historically false in our world is true in that world.

If you've ever had a shred of curiousity, and I hope we all do, you know that the what-ifs in the world are pretty much infinite. And exploring the social, cultural, scientific, philosophical and moral implications of alternate truths is FAR more interesting to me, than stories of the reality I live in now.

Science fiction often poses questions about how a new science or technology will influence the future. Novels by Stephen King and Michael Crichton often explore alternate possibilities of the present. In some ways, the books of China Miéville are about something in the past, though the reality there is so different, it's hard to draw an exact parallel.

Some what-ifs have had too much play in sci-fi. Like "what if, because of some natural disaster or environmental degradation, the human species had to leave earth and colonize other planets?" and "what if there are alien species out there, with designs on conquering earth?" But as sci-fi grows, new questions can be asked. Some of these questions and potential truths may lie in our near future. Such as: "What if we can create machines out of nano-particles? what would we do with them? how would they be used?" (This story about nano technology is NSFW.)

Science fiction is the future. Not just because authors usually write about it, but because if literature is going to continue to be interesting and challenging, it should also question everything we think we know.

Sometimes the future really happens. And someday we'll each have a jetpack. :P

Do Not Question: A poem by Shāʾistah Ḥabīb

Do Not Question

Our era

Is holding our mutilated images in its hands,

The procession is passing through a huge market place.

Wave after wave,

Holding hands,

Wearing human costumes,

How satisfied are the people

With the provisions they receive

For permitting others to abuse their mothers.

Keep walking,

Great gains are expected of this, later on.

Switch off the thoughts

Arising in your minds.

Do not use too much electricity,

Save some light for the black days.

Keep walking, comrade--

Why do you, like an obstinate child,

Wish to pluck the juicy mulberry branch?

Trample -- move on,

Lest the vultures who are ahead of us

Distribute our provisions among themselves,

As there is one piece of bread

And a thousand mouths.

Anyway, keep walking,

Striking, knocking down.

Something more than bread is waiting for us.

We are the fortunate ones,

At last being awaited by someone.

Will there be a cool spring of water over there?

No no -- remain silent -- do not question

Or you'll be the loser,

Keep walking --

Who tumbled?

Don't look back.


How am I affiliated to this column of people?

I don't have to think.

Where should I seek sanctuary in this deluge?

Mad, insane.

The thesis of this search of affiliations

Is in the last show-case of the museum,

So that the future generations may go through it

And prepare notes on history.

With the scotch tape of wealth,

Connect each generation to the next.

All other clues are meaningless-- be silent--

Do not irritate others -- don't question

Or you'll be the loser.

Translated from Urdu by Yasmin Hameed.

(From: Pakistani Literature, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1995, p.505-6).

The author, Shāʾistah Ḥabīb (anglicized as Shaista Habib), died in 2004. An obituary and biography of her life can be found here.

Italy and after

Oy vey! It's been a long time. I know I should have posted sooner. A number of things have prevented me from doing that. I apologize for the long delay. So I'll try to give an overview of my last few months.

I went to the European Association of South Asian Archaeologists conference in Ravenna, Italy at the beginning of July. The conference was great, and I presented my paper "Social Difference and Craft Production in Iron Age Tamil Nadu: Preliminary Results from Kodumanal" on the second day with a full room in attendance. My fellow grad students from Madison also presented, and everyone did a great job. I also met a lot of other great researchers, faculty, and grad students in other institutions. Though the cost of the trip was pretty high, the return on the investment was very high.

After the end of the conference, my friend and fellow grad student, Katie and I had made plans to travel for just over a week along with Katie's friend Sangeeta. So we started from Ravenna and took the train to Venice, where we stayed on a smaller island nearby called The Lido. The Lido was once a beach resort for the rich and famous. Now it's a somewhat less glorious place but with a lovely beach, and the cost of hotel rooms was much cheaper than in Venice proper. We each purchased the three-day boat pass for $50, which was ridiculous, but less ridiculous than paying for each individual boat ride. The boats are like the bus system in Manhattan, and there really is no other way to get around. We explored Venice, though we didn't see every single sight to be seen. I got some nice pictures in Venice. I'll put a few here, but the full set can be seen at Flickr.

After Venice, we took the train to Florence (Firenze), and from Firenze to Siena for a day. From Firenze we returned to Bologna where we first arrived, and flew home. The best parts of the trip involved a lot of wine and/or sangria, and are thus a bit fuzzy in my memory. The little local bar on the corner by the Hostel outside Bologna was fantastic. They were truly the local flavor. The glasses of wine also only cost 1 euro, and were filled to the brim.

The Duomo Cathedral in Firenze

The sights of Italy were just spectacular, and so was the food. For the most part anyway. There were a few disappointments on the food front. But the last meal, a "Ravioli alla fantasie della chef" was superb. It was a creamy sun dried tomato sauce with walnuts and pancetta and lots of parmesan, and probably some other ingredients I couldn't identify. I knew I was taking a risk, letting the chef's fantasy take my dinner, but it was spectacular.

Everything about Italy was so great, and the trip so short, that all I can really conclude is that I need to go back. We didn't go to Rome, (too far, too much to pack in to a short trip), nor did we see any of the other spectacular archaeological sites or monuments that dot the country. Someday I'll have to plan for myself an archaeological tour of Italy.

However, I did see a really interesting exhibit on the Etruscan period, though all the signs were in Italian, and I couldn't get much about who really the Etruscans were, or what was going on in terms of politics or society at that time. They made some really cool artifacts though:


After returning from Italy I got back to the business of research. This was interrupted by the death of my hard drive, though getting it replaced under the AppleCare protection plan was amazingly easy, considering it's India. I mean I had to go to Chennai on the overnight train, and contact an Apple authorized repair place, but they were fast, efficient and nice. All my research was backed up... so a hassle, but not a disaster.

I also conducted some experimental work with a local Potter near by to Thanjavur, in which we attempted a couple of different methods for producing the so called "classic Black and Red Ware", that is the most common type of pottery found in the Iron Age. Except for some cracking it came out pretty well:


After that I went to Pondicherry to meet with professors Rajan and Subbarayalu, and proceeded to Coimbatore District to visit other archaeological sites of the Iron Age, in the region around Kodumanal where my research is currently based. I found several interesting sites I hope to return to, and saw some lovely country-side. Here's a couple of examples:



I'll be going out soon to visit more sites, and I'll do my best to post again soon.

Cultural Encounter of the Day: Columbus Was From India

I feel like I should have been writing these kinds of little vignettes of my cultural encounters all along. So here is hopefully the first of many. I truly enjoy the new perspectives I gain in these encounters.

Today I went to the post office to post a package back to the U.S. to a friend of mine who spent a year living in India, and he wanted a new pair of Indian style sandals and some strings for the Veena (a South Indian instrument often confused with the Sitar). Mailing a package to the U.S. is made more complicated because you can't mail anything without having it wrapped in white cloth, stitched closed, and sealed with red wax. But first you have to show the clerk the contents of the package, so they can see that it's not harmful or illegal.

I went inside the post office and began asking around about mailing an international package. There is no particular counter or person who is designated to handle these things. But someone always comes to help. I showed the contents of my package and asked about where to get the white cloth and stitching done. I was directed across the street, and when I enquired about how much it should cost, the post office guy escorted me across the street to the shop of miscellany (a rocking horse, clay dolls, safety pins, hair pins, envelopes, and also re-weaving the seats of 'caned' style chairs, and stitching parcels in white cloth). He warned the guy that I know Tamil, and I came to study so he should treat me fairly, not cheat me, and speak Tamil with me.

So I sat around in the shop and watched him measure out the cloth, and start stitching. Pretty soon he was making conversation. Did I come to study Tamil? Do I know Tamil well? What is my native country? Do I like India or America better? Do I like English or Tamil better? (All asked in Tamil, of course. This is my translation).

After a pause I was asked a question I've not been asked before, in India: 'How did America get it's name?' I said there was a guy named Amerigo who came from Italy, and he came very early on in the history of the place. It is named after him. I mentioned that he was not the first European to reach that continent. That was Christopher Columbus, who came from Spain.

In response, the man stitching my friend's package said, "Ah, yes. Christopher Columbus. He is my countryman. He went all over the world searching for God. That is how he discovered so many new places. But he is Indian. My countryman."

Oh. I said. Really? I didn't know that.