Archaeology

Friends,

For a long time now I have been wanting to write something about Indian languages other than English…bhojpuri, hindi, bengalee, marathi, awadhi, braj, haryanavi, panjabi, maithili, angika, magadhi, paharia, santhali, birhor, ardha-magadhi, pali, latin, Sanskrit…the list of Indian languages (according to) G.A. Grierson. 1904. Linguistic survey of India….which is no doubt, now obfuscated, even if it is, for that period, a good record.

How is it…..how is it….how is it, that India, as a country, manages with such linguistic, diversity? The Brits, in the Colonial Period, almost broke, all records, of trying to document, each and every, language, and language family, and just so, the very much known dialects, of, India to understand this problem

However, as an archaeologist, with proper academic degrees, would let, u, know, easily, that a survey of a universe (of data) is only possible, through, a sample of it! the sample simulates the universe, but is not it.

As, no sample; although, in practical life we but test but one or two grain of rice, to adjudge, if all rice is cooked; and that, to all intents, and, purposes works…yet, we tend to think of the British, and British period surveys, like the Linguistic Survey, referred to above, that Sir George A. Grierson, could not, even, remotely, have pulled-up a perfect sample, of the total languages, and dialects of India in 1904! What, of, linguistic, developments, of over a hundred years, after-that? Think about that.

Complex web, this business, of Indian toungues, and a good question, here, would be, as to why, as an archaeologist, I am delving into it!

What wonderful Mysteries await its furthernb questioning

U shall get ur answerz as aaaeeeiii du!

Consider this;

Raj ki bitiya, Bhaat ki bitiya;
duno jani hatiya main haat peet kareli;
raja ke raani bhaili, mahant ke mahatin bhaili;
inko saat poot, unko saat-poot,
inkar saab jiyat rahal, unkar saah mar kahr gaeil;

"kaho tora bhaini ho roe ke nahaye ke sardha baa;
haan ho mora bhahinee ho roye ke nahaye ke sardha baaa;

Chaal chaal ja, tundar dhan pasariha;
larikwan aihen, giree bichchilainhe;
gari, pakee, phuti, mari-hari jahihen,
roe ke nahaye ke sardha pooree;

chal chal jayalee, tundare dhaan pasarelee;
laraikwan awailen,
khelelan kudelen;

Kahu mora bhainee ho naa kehu marelaa na kehu kharelaaa
charoo kudelaa phanelkaa,
netua nachela, nagargeet gawela,
bhaat barmawela,
patoh soh kajar sendur karelee!

Pratap, Singh,
BHU
India.

Friends,

Make no mistake, there is, something, called commercial archaeoology...although it hasnt as yet found, to the best of my knowledge, its confounded-roots, in India. But first, to the first questions, being evoked, here, is that, what is commercial archaeology - anyway?

very, simply, in countries, like, the United states of america, ; and correspondingly, if my information is correct, in Europe and in England, the law of the land is that anything, like an oil-mine, occurring under the surface of the privately owned-plots, too, are not government property, sensu stricto. that is to say, that if u, as an indian, owned a piece of property, in basel, and a gold-mine, was discovered under your piece of land,; then, not even the government, of, basel, could lay claim to that goldmine. that goldmine, woul, my friend, be yours, for posterity.

however, the law of the land, in our coutry, says, that, if a copper-hoard which is a collection of objects made of pre-moddern, that is to say archaeologically old copper, is discovered beneath your property, then india, the government not only has the right to that copper-hoard, but, if it so desires, it may remove your house (with adequate compensation!) and then take hold of that, copper-hoard.

to each country their sites and monuments act is welcome althogu since ours, if my information is correct, was last updated in 1958.

now think of the size of countries like basel, greece, turkey, albani, puerto rico, lithuania, the uniteed states, uk, belgium, poland, yugoslavia, papua new guinea and india!

just think, the great divergence in landmass, countryside, the standing and buried heritage, of these geographically, no doubt, very, varied climes.

it is a fact that it has already been realized by some countries, like the Uniteed States, that if the government is to be the sole protector of the standing and buried heritage then most of it would be lost even before the governments of the day were to become aware of it. the same is true for Britain.

thus it is, that in these countries, much like in india with developmental NGOs, the govt. has farmed out its work of locating and conserving archaeological heritage; standing and buried; to commercial archaeological firms.

this is what we call Commercial archaeology. However, it is true, that commercial archaeology has yet to take roots in india.

Ajay Pratap, 2009

i once met, a very large monkey,
a sage langoor, without sindoor,
as this was deep-eastern-india,
there was nary tandoor,
nor jee hazur, no moor,
no country boor,
said the monkey to me,
what do you say, hey, that you should stay,
and i wander like this,
no bengalee chingree-fish,
yet, if you so wish, i may in a trish,
say, hello, to a memsahib, and such far pavilions,
sir, vidiya, vikram chandra,
the ghats of bandra,
ronnie tikari, and, sir kujur;
note, you heathen, the repleter, of the ozone layer,
i only chew leaves, and jump, about;
and, you, you;
it makes my throat sore, to sing you lore, your,
monkeying-tales-of-the-yore,
your, disasters, galore
never more?
lies, upon, lies,
cheating to the core;
this, planet; and the next,
you destory, whatever seems sore,
forever wishing for more, extension,
of gore, deplore,
dumbledore.

Friends,

In association, with my Ph.D. student, Shri Anand Prakash Pathak, I have, just yesterday, concluded, the seocnd season of fieldwork, at Wyndham Falls, Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh; where significant clusters of prehistoric painted rock-shelters were located by us in the 2008 field season and now reported in Antiquity: http://antiquity.ac.uk/antiquityNew/projgall/pratap321/

As we were surveying, nearly till sun-down, the landscape, for urban-breds,like us, became slightly scary, as, at sundown, we were able to see, wolves, running around. Here and there, there was evidence, that a lot of local cattle, that was sick, got chewed by these wolves. Parts of mandibles, femurs, tibia and fibulae, bones, that were pretty obviously gnawed, to a perfection, gnawed bones, were, lying on the forest-tracks, available for examination. There have been some archaeologists, who have studied the gnawing-marks, of bones, in contemporary contexts, to understand scavenging behaviour of small predators like Wolves, Hyena, and Jackals, even rodents and their various subspecies; and have compared them to gnawing marks, that are found on bones, recovered from archaeological excavations. A usual methodin such studies is the microwear analysis where artefacts are examined under a suitable magnification provided by a hand-lens or a lowpower (that is say upto 100x microscope).

A comparison of these gnawing-marks, in the two contexts, ancient and modern (that is the archaeological), allows us to establish, which species, was being preyed upon by which.

A very large femur bone, lay, right next to a crevice in a boulder, along the river at Wyndham. Our field assistant, much to our chagrin tried to incite the wolf from its lair. The wolf was stuck fast, without any growling etc., inside its layer, and we requested our field assistant, to desist from antagonizing it, and moved on with the survey. The surprising thing, though, is that as yet, even in two seasons of fieldwork, we have not located, as yet, any stone-tools whatsoever! The pictures that you are seeing do not,by a long-shot, suggest that these could have been made by a Subsistence-Farmer group. For very simply the landscape evidence is also against it. The terrain is far too rugged and rocky for any significant economic practice other than Hunting-Fishing-Farming. Yet, in a close-look, at the long painted panel here given,I was able to discern that in the scene with flying arrows and the like,at the very right margin of the painting, there appears to be a depiction,which we couldnot previously understand, but which on this newest examination, seems todepict,a sort of house,with people sitting inside it,and the first of the archers is standing just outside of it,with his back,to this,hut,and firing arrows to the frontof him,at a group of peoplewho are quite away from the first archer and the house.

Rough courtyside, even, today. but for fieldworkers, and such like, the more rugged the countryside, the better. Karl W. Butzer, comes to mind, "Geomorphology from the Earth.". Good recommended reading for historians of Indian archaeolgy, and, such beginners, proposing to do fieldwork.

It is a crazy landscape, this place, my student, and i, visited, just 24 four hours ago. A meandering river, reported crocodiles, rock-paintings, and just the normal Baghelkhandi, Indian, countryside....shall upload pictures in the near future...toodledoo and teedldedum.

ap, 20009.

Of nothing.

The trouble with the rubble, the bubble,
Of sweet wine, without, cheese,
Should I dance, or,
Should I freeze?

There is a gentle, breeze,
Tells me there is geese, and,
Donot falter or sneeze,
As you slaughter, them, as,
You, just, want to,
Cure your wheeze!

I have had this medicine, before,
It doesn’t quite, work,
Because, there is so much, wrong,
And, not with the birds or bees,
Not with grass or trees,
Not with sahibs and ha jees,
Not with tahjeebs,
Nor frangipanees,
Nor keys,
To that heavenly land of leyvs and lees,
Of beatles, rolling stones, mick jagger,
Of the wonderous bee-gees,
But to be sure, hotel California
Is just a state of mind
Most likely to become
With those who state their mind