Bronze and Iron Ages in South Asia

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Recent years have witnessed a flurry of archaeological activity in India, Pakistan and other parts of South Asia, producing an enormous wealth of data and consequently making most of the general books on South Asian Archaeology out of date. This encouraged the authors to attempt a balanced and holistic synthesis of the new evidences and research material. To do justice to the vast data, the project Archaeology of South Asia) was planned in two volumes. The story of human from the beginning of the Stone Age to the advent of agriculture and animal husbandry was covered in South Asian Prehistory published in 2002. The present volume, Bronze and Iron Ages in South Asia, second in the series, incorporates the latest results of research on Indus valley civilization and other cultures of Bronze and Iron Ages. The book attempts to give an interdisciplinary survey of Indian archaeology giving due emphasis to technology and environmental changes. The Indus civilization, which required a much fuller treatment, has been studied in great detail as also most of the Chalocolithic and Copper Hoard cultures. The Iron Age cultures and the origin of iron technology, making of wootz steel and the way iron contributed to the socio-economic processes associated with the second urbanization have also been dealt with in detail. This work also shows that a close interaction existed between the Ganga Valley and the Central Himalayas since the Bronze Age. The concluding chapter summarizes the evidences and points towards the lacunae to be filled and the new directions of research. The Book clearly delineates the difference between the characters of the first Bronze Age urbanization of the Indus Valley and the second Iron Age urbanization of the Ganga Valley. It brings out a multidisciplinary synthesis of archaeological, linguistic and paleoclimatic data. Profusely illustrated with maps, line drawings and plates, the book will interest the general reader and will be immensely helpful for the students and scholars of South Asian Archaeology in particular.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR D P Agrawal

As Prof. D.P. Agrawal has worked with the Archaeological Survey of India, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Bombay and the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, his academic contributions are marked by an interdisciplinary yet holistic approach. He has made significant contributions to the fields of palaeoenvironment, prehistoric archaeology, radiocarbon and TL dating, archaeometallurgy and traditional knowledge systems. For two years he participated in the excavations of the famous Harappan site of Kalibangan in Rajasthan. He has extensively worked on the copper technology of the Harappans and has been associated with the palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental studies - both in Kashmir and Rajasthan. His delineation of Rajasthan's palaeoenvironmental changes is very relevant to the Harappan studies. He has published 20 books and 250 papers. He has been a member of the Advisory Board of World Archaeology and Le 'anthropologie and edited Man and Environment for a number of years. He was Chairman of a large multidisciplinary group at PRL and is a Fellow of the National Science Academy. He is a member of the National Commission on History of Science of the Indian National Science Academy. He is now the chief editor of a multi-volume international project on the history of science and technology and honorary ndirector of Lok Vigyan Kendra, Almora. He also runs a philanthropic trust at Almora.