South Asian archaeology Papers from the first international conference of South Asian archaeologists held in the University of Cambridge

This book is not another introduction to Indian archaeology, nor a survey of the present state of knowledge, rather it comprises 21 working papers, first presented at Cambridge in June 1971 by professional archaeologists from India, Italy, France, Germany, Holland, Britain, and the United States. Consequently, there is neither unity of theme nor consistency in approach to the topics discussed. But as compensation, the reader is exposed to a variety of analytical techniques and theoretical perspectives which exemplify traditional typological and art-historical methods as well as field research based in geomorphology and ethnography, and studies of prehistoric technology. A particular merit of the volume lies in the way the balance of contributions rather faithfully reflects the distribution, both chronologically and spatially, of research effort during the past few years by overseas archaeologists in South Asia.