Before Vijayanagara

Language: EnglishPages: 165 (97 B/W Illustrations)About the BookBefore Vijayanagara: Prehistoric Landscapes and Politics in the Tungabhadra Basin is the first comprehensive survey of the archaeological evidence for Iron Age habitation and culture in the Tungabhadra River valley - a region which witnessed the rise and fall of Vijayanagara during the 14th-16th centuries. By meticulously documenting sites of prehistoric activity over an area of some 80 square kilometres, Andrew Bauer demonstrates that Iron Age societies in this part of peninsular India were not nomadic, as has sometimes been assumed, but were rooted to the land through a variety of productive locations, settlements, and memorials. Among the more than 1,000 features that the volume analyses are megalithic monuments, painted natural rock surfaces, masonry and earthen structures, as well as terraces, retention walls, and reservoirs. According to the author, the creation of material and symbolic landsc