Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

The Maski Archaeological Research Project (2010–18):Initial Results from a Multi-Period Interdisciplinary Project on the Raichur Doab, Karnataka, India


Affiliations
1 Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, United States
2 Department of Anthropology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2T7, Canada
 

This article summarizes the results of five field seasons of the Maski Archaeological Research Project, an interdisciplinary project evaluating the relationships between social and environmental production throughout prehistoric and medieval periods in a 64 km2 region centred around Maski, Raichur district, Karnataka, India. We report the outcomes of intensive pedestrian survey and initial results from excavations, salvage activities and radiocarbon assessments of occupational histories. The data attest to the social and political significance of prehistoric burial practices, and medieval period settlement practices and land-use activities, highlighting how archaeological materials both belie and complement epigraphic analyses of the region.

Keywords

Archaeological Survey, Interdisciplinary Project, Medieval Period, Prehistory, Raichur Doab.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Thapar, B. K., Maski 1954: a chalcolithic site of the southern Deccan. Ancient India, 1957, 13, 4–142.
  • Asher, C. B. and Talbot, C., India Before Europe, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2006, pp. 163–166.
  • Eaton, R. M. and Wagoner, P. B., Power, Memory, Architecture, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 2014, p. 242.
  • Derrett, J. D. M., The Hoysalas, Oxford University Press, London, UK, 1957, p. 59.
  • Eaton, R. M., A Social History of the Deccan, 1300–1761: Eight Indian Lives, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2005, pp. 88–89.
  • Philon, H., Gulbarga, Bidar, Bijapur, Jaico, London, UK, 2017, pp. 13–15.
  • Bauer, A. M., Johansen, P. G. and Bauer, R. L., Toward a political ecology in early South India: preliminary considerations of the sociopolitics of land and animal use in the southern Deccan, Neolithic through early historic periods. Asian Perspect., 2007, 46, 1– 38.
  • Fuller, D. Q., Indus and non-Indus agricultural traditions: local development and crop adoptions on the Indian peninsula. In Indus Ethnobiology (eds Weber, S. and Belcher, W.), Lexington Books, Lanham, Maryland, USA, 2003, pp. 343–396.
  • Korisettar, R., Venkatasubbaiah, P. C. and Fuller, D. Q., Brahmagiri and beyond: the archaeology of the southern Neolithic. In Indian Archaeology in Retrospect: Prehistory Archaeology of South Asia (eds Settar, S. and Korisettar, R.), Manohar, New Delhi, 2001, pp. 151–237.
  • Paddayya, K., The problem of ashmounds of southern Deccan in the light of Budihal excavations, Karnataka. Bull. Deccan Coll. Post-Grad. Inst., 2001, 60–61, 189–225.
  • Sastri, T. V. G., Kasturi Bai, M. and Prasada Rao, V. J., Veerapuram, Birla Archaeological and Cultural Research Institute, Hyderabad, 1984.
  • Thomas, P. K., Deshpande-Mukherje, A. and Shobha, V., Faunal assemblages from Kanenur, Kaveripura and Kannifere: Iron Age/early historic sites in Karnataka. Man Environ., 2006, 31, 75– 80.
  • Morrison, K. D., Reddy, S. N. and Kashyap, A., Agrarian transitions in Iron Age southern India: social and environmental implications. In South Asian Archaeology and Art 2012 (eds Lefèvre, V., Didier, A. and Mutin, B.), Brepols, Turnhout, Belgium, 2016, pp. 185–196.
  • Johansen, P. G. and Bauer, A. M., Beyond culture history at Maski: land use, settlement and social differences in neolithic through medieval South India. Archaeol. Res. Asia, 2015, 1, 6–16.
  • Patil, C. S. and Patil, V. C., Inscriptions of Karnataka Vol. IV: Inscriptions of Raichur District, Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Mysore, 1998.
  • Bauer, A. M., Remote sensing soils and social geographies of difference: the landscape archaeology of regur from Iron Age through medieval period northern Karnataka, Southern India. J. Field Archaeol., 2018, 43, 31–43.
  • Bintliff, J. and Snodgrass, A., Off-site pottery distributions: a regional and interregional perspective. Curr. Anthropol., 1988, 29, 506–513.
  • Wilkinson, T. J., Extensive sherd scatters and land-use intensity: some recent results. J. Field Archaeol., 1989, 16, 31–46.
  • Bronk Ramsey, C. and Lee, S., Recent and planned developments of the program OxCal. Radiocarbon, 2013, 55, 720–730.
  • Reimer, P. J. et al., IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon, 2013, 55, 1869–1887.
  • Bauer, A. M. and Johansen, P. G., Prehistoric mortuary practices and the constitution of social relationships: implications of the first radiocarbon dates from Maski on the occupational history of a South Indian ‘type site’. Radiocarbon, 2015, 57, 795–806.
  • Murari, K., The Calukyas of Kalyani, Concept Publishing House, Delhi, 1976, pp. 57–60.
  • Kadiri, A. A., Epigraphia Indica: Arabic & Persian Supplement, Archaeological Survey of India, Government of India Press, 1962, pp. 53–57.
  • Fuller, D. Q., Boivin, N. and Korisettar, R., Dating the neolithic of South India: new radiometric evidence for key economic, social and ritual transformations. Antiquity, 2007, 81, 755–778.
  • Roberts, P. et al., Local diversity in settlement, demography and subsistence across the southern Indian Neolithic–Iron Age transition: site growth and abandonment at Sanganakallu–Kupgal. Archaeol. Anthropol. Sci., 2016, 8, 575–599.
  • Johansen, P. G., On the cusp of social change: iron working and cattle keeping at Bukkasagara at the onset of the South Indian Iron Age in northern Karnataka. Archaeol. Res. Asia, 2019; doi.org/10.1016/j.ara.2019.02.003.
  • Fuller, D. Q., Ceramics, seeds and culinary change in prehistoric India. Antiquity, 2005, 79, 761–777.
  • Sinopoli, C. M., Ceramic change and ceramic use in late prehistoric South India: the evidence from Kadebakele (Koppal District, Karnataka). In South Asian Archaeology and Art 2012 (eds Lefèvre, V., Didier, A. and Mutin, B.), Brepols, Turnhout, Belgium, 2016, pp. 291–304.

Abstract Views: 300

PDF Views: 73




  • The Maski Archaeological Research Project (2010–18):Initial Results from a Multi-Period Interdisciplinary Project on the Raichur Doab, Karnataka, India

Abstract Views: 300  |  PDF Views: 73

Authors

Andrew M. Bauer
Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, United States
Peter G. Johansen
Department of Anthropology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2T7, Canada

Abstract


This article summarizes the results of five field seasons of the Maski Archaeological Research Project, an interdisciplinary project evaluating the relationships between social and environmental production throughout prehistoric and medieval periods in a 64 km2 region centred around Maski, Raichur district, Karnataka, India. We report the outcomes of intensive pedestrian survey and initial results from excavations, salvage activities and radiocarbon assessments of occupational histories. The data attest to the social and political significance of prehistoric burial practices, and medieval period settlement practices and land-use activities, highlighting how archaeological materials both belie and complement epigraphic analyses of the region.

Keywords


Archaeological Survey, Interdisciplinary Project, Medieval Period, Prehistory, Raichur Doab.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv117%2Fi1%2F46-56