This book looks at the ways in which archaeological methods have been
used in debates concerning the early medieval and medieval periods in
South Asia. Despite the incorporation and use of archaeological data to
corroborate historical narratives, the theories and methods of archaeology
are largely ignored in and excluded from the dominating, institutionalized,
and hegemonic disciplinary discourses. The volume offers contesting
insights, polemical narratives, and new data from archaeological contexts
to initiate a debate on many foundational premises of archaeological and
historical narratives. It focuses on the much-neglected region of the Eastern
Ganga-Brahmaputra Basin as a spatial frame to do this and studies themes
such as spatial and temporal scales of concepts and methods, multi-scaler
factors and processes of continuity and changes, the settlement archaeology
of the alluvial landscape, changing patterns of agrarian transformation, and
material cultures, including coins, inscriptions, pottery, and sculptures, in
their contexts in sub-regional, regional, and supra-regional intersections.
Dedicated to historian Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya, this volume presents
a crucial and unprecedented intervention in the study of the early medieval
and the medieval periods. It will be useful for scholars and researchers of
archaeology, ancient history, medieval history, water history, earth sciences,
palaeoecology, historical ecology, epigraphy, art history, material culture
studies, Indian history, and South Asian studies in general
Author(s): Swadhin Sen, Surpriya Varma, Bhairabi Prasad Sahu
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 405
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
List of figures
List of tables
List of contributors
Notes on transliteration
A Dedicatory Note: The unsettling interrogative sensibilities of Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya and transgression of the disciplinary boundaries
Chapter 1 Introduction: Trouble of thinking about the archaeology of the early medieval and the medieval in Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna Basin
Part 1 Conceptual, methodological, and spatiotemporal domains of archaeology
Chapter 2 Locating the medieval in South Asian archaeology: Resetting field methods and practices
Chapter 3 The changing landscape of early medieval Indian history: Perspectives from archaeology
Chapter 4 Engaging with the past beyond the comfort zone: Early medieval and medieval in the archaeological context of the north-western part of Bengal
Part 2 Settlements, landscapes, and interpretive frameworks
Chapter 5 Changing patterns of agrarian development in early medieval North Bengal: A delineation from the inscriptions
Chapter 6 Early medieval and medieval settlements on the littoral and active part of a delta: An archaeological study of the southwestern part of Bangladesh
Chapter 7 Chronicles of perpetually reconfiguring entanglements: A precursory understanding of the landscape archaeology of Teesta Megafan of Bangladesh
Part 3 Pottery analyses and the spatiotemporal indexes
Chapter 8 Pottery of Bengal during the early medieval period
Chapter 9 Analysing the pottery from the Brahmaputra Valley: Issues within archaeology and history (seventh to fifteenth centuries CE)
Part 4 Material culture and monumental remains in context
Chapter 10 Religious pictures from Bengal and Eastern Bihar: More than illustrating pantheons
Chapter 11 Temple-building in early medieval–medieval Bengal: Revisiting contexts in Western Bengal
Chapter 12 The regional monetary identity of ‘medieval Bengal’ (thirteenth to sixteenth centuries CE): Coin hoards, mint towns, and connectivity
Index
