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SUMMARY:Study of organic residues in pottery from the Indus Civilisation i
 n northwest India - Akshyeta Suryanarayan\, University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20191025T121500Z
DTEND:20191025T130000Z
UID:TALK131833@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:83656
DESCRIPTION:Concepts of food production\, agriculture\, pastoralism\, urba
 nism and climatic/cultural change in the Indus Civilisation (c. 3000-1300 
 BC)\, South Asia’s first urban civilisation\, are inextricably linked. T
 his talk will describe the results from my PhD research which is the first
  large-scale study of organic residues in pottery in the region. My resear
 ch tests the extent of the survival of lipids within pottery recovered fro
 m different contexts from northwest India and Pakistan\, and investigates 
 what products were processed in ceramic vessels by Indus populations in ru
 ral and urban settlements in northwest India. Specifically\, the study cha
 racterises how vessels may have been used at different settlements during 
 the urban period (c. 2600/2500-1900 BC)\, and identifies whether changes i
 n vessel use occurred in the post-urban period (c. 1900-1300 BC)\, a perio
 d hypothesized to be marked by dramatic societal transformations and poten
 tial climatic instability. Results reveal that there are significant chall
 enges associated with conducting organic residue analysis in hot and seaso
 nally wet environments\, and interpretational limitations with the disenta
 ngling of mixtures of products in vessels in arid environments. Despite me
 thodological challenges\, the results provide a new means by which to inve
 stigate and imagine Indus foodways\, providing insight into what ancient I
 ndus cuisine at both urban and rural settlements may have looked like.
LOCATION:South Lecture Room\, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Resear
 ch\, Downing Site
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