Bronze and Iron Ages in South Asia - Hardcover

D.P. Agrawal & J.S. Kharakwal

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 8173052522 ISBN 13: 9788173052521

Publisher: Aryan Books International, 2003

Synopsis

Recent years have witnessed a flurry of archaeological activity in India, Pakistan and other parts of South Asia, producing an enormous wealth of data and consequently making most of the general books on South Asian Archaeology out of date. This encouraged the authors to attempt a balanced and holistic synthesis of the new evidences and research material. To do justice to the vast data, the project (Archaeology of South Asia) was planned in two volumes. The story of humans from the beginning of the Stone Age to the advent of agriculture and animal husbandry was covered in South Asian Prehistory published in 2002. The present volume, Bronze and Iron Ages in South Asia, second in the series, incorporates the latest results of research on Indus valley civilization and other cultures of Bronze and Iron Ages. The book attempts to give an interdisciplinary survey of Indian archaeology giving due emphasis to technology and environmental changes. The Indus civilization, which required a much fuller treatment, has been studied in great detail as also most of the Chalcolithic and Copper Hoard cultures. The Iron Age cultures and some of its outstanding issues such as the origin of iron technology, making of wootz steel and the way iron contributed to the socio-economic processes associated with the second urbanization, have also been dealt with in detail. This work also shows that a close interaction existed between the Ganga Valley and the Central Himalayas since the Bronze Age. The concluding chapter summarizes the evidence and points towards the lacunae to be filled and the new directions of research. The book clearly delineates the difference between the characters of the first Bronze age urbanization of the Indus Valley and the second Iron Age urbanization of the Ganga valley. It brings out a multidisciplinary synthesis of archaeological, linguistic and paleo-climatic data. Profusely illustrated with maps, line drawings and plates, the book will interest the general reader and will be immensely helpful for the students and scholars of south Asian Archaeology in particular.

About this title

About the Author

In the course of his long academic career, Prof. D.P. Agrawal has worked with the Archaeological Survey of India, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Bombay and Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahemdabad. His research contributors have been varied and multidisciplinary-mainly in the fields of palaeoenvironment, prehistoric archaeology, radiocarbon & TL dating and archaeometallurgy. His main areas of works have been: Kashmir, Central Himalayas and Rajasthan. Prof. Agarwal has specialized in the use of scientific techniques for archaeological research. He has also made fundamental theoretical contributions in the fields of language and evolution, flaking mechanics, archaeological theories and concept of time. He has published 17 books and about 250 papers. He was a member of the advisory board of World Archaeology, Le' Anthroplogie and has edited Man & Environment for a number of years. He retired as a senior professor and chairman of a large multidisciplinary group at Physical Research Laboratory. At present, he is Project Director of Traditional Knowledge Systems in Uttaranchal, sponsored by Infinity foundation.
Dr. Jaswan S. Kharakwal did his master's in Ancient Indian History and Archaeology from Kumaun University and Ph. D from Deccan Collage, Pune. He teaches South Asian Archaeology at the Institute of Rajasthan Studies, Rajasthan Vidyapeeth, Udaipur. He has carried out extensive archaeological, ethnographic and archaeometallurgical explorations in Kumaun and Rajasthan with Profs. D.P. Agrawal, V.N. Shinde. Currently he is working on archaeometallurgical sites in western India. He was a visiting JSPS fellow at International Research Center for Japanese Studies for one and the half years (2000-2002). He has published Central Himalayas: An Archaeological, Linguistic and Cultural Synthesis (1998) and South Asian Prehistory (2002) jointly with Prof. D.P. Agrawal.

About this edition

• Publisher: Aryan Books International
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 8173052522
• ISBN 13: 9788173052521
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 322