The Archaeology of Early Medieval and Medieval South Asia: Contesting Narratives from the Eastern Ganga-Brahmaputra Basin

This book explores the use of archaeological methods in debates about the early medieval and medieval periods in South Asia, focusing on the Eastern Ganga-Brahmaputra Basin. It offers contesting insights and data to challenge foundational premises of archaeological and historical narratives, particularly in the region's alluvial landscape.

Format: Hardback
Length: 374 pages
Publication date: 30 November 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This book delves into the fascinating ways in which archaeological methods have been employed in the ongoing debates surrounding the early medieval and medieval periods in South Asia. While archaeological data has been incorporated and utilized to support historical narratives, the theories and methodologies of archaeology often remain marginalized and excluded from the dominant, institutionalized, and hegemonic disciplinary discourses. The volume aims to initiate a robust debate on several fundamental premises of archaeological and historical narratives by presenting challenging insights, polemical narratives, and fresh data derived from archaeological contexts.

Focusing on the largely overlooked region of the Eastern Ganga-Brahmaputra Basin, the book employs this spatial frame to explore a range of themes. These include the examination of spatial and temporal scales of concepts and methods, the interplay of multi-scaler factors and processes of continuity and change, the study of settlement archaeology within the alluvial landscape, the shifting patterns of agrarian transformation, and the examination of material cultures, including coins, inscriptions, pottery, and sculptures, within their respective sub-regional, regional, and supra-regional intersections.

This book is a tribute to historian Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya and represents a significant and groundbreaking intervention in the study of the early medieval and the medieval periods. It will be of immense value to scholars and researchers in the fields of archaeology, ancient history, medieval history, water history, earth sciences, paleoecology, historical ecology, epigraphy, art history, material culture studies, Indian history, and South Asian studies in general.

Weight: 910g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781138320925