Abstract:-
This talk presents recent international case studies in multidisciplinary scientific approaches in archaeology and related studies. The examples include investigations from different time periods and different contexts, and which address important questions about human evolution, geographic dispersals, environmental adaptations, past climate impact on landscapes, population admixture, technological development and so forth. Different scientific methods are highlighted to show how they can reveal novel information about the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age across the world including India. Examples of some key methods and approaches that are discussed include remote sensing, geochemical studies, geochronological methods, genetic studies, experimental archaeology, different types of microscopy, statistical modelling and so forth. The presentation also briefly discusses specific methodological and interpretative limitations that archaeologists and paleoanthropologists regularly face in their respective work.
About the Speaker:-
My main areas of interest are stone tools, vertebrate fossils and rock art of South Asia. Currently, I am heading the Narmada Basin Paleoanthropology Project, the goal of which is to understand (from a multidisciplinary perspective) patterns of human occupation and adaptations in the region over the span of at least one million years and also search for additional hominin fossils. During my doctoral work, I have also carried out research in the Siwalik Hills, work which is ongoing and involves targeting different types of paleoanthropological datasets to investigate a possible hominin presence in South Asia older than the Acheulean (i.e., older than 1.5 million years). In addition, I am also analyzing microlithic stone tools from a cave in Konkan Maharashtra in collaboration with the Government of Maharastra and collaborating with CHARUSAT and other colleagues to understand the co-evolution of humans and ostriches in the Tapi Basin. I am also interested in flintknapping and utilizing the resulting stone tools to understand the roles of culture, function, technology and raw material selection, and the associated impacts on such materials as stone, wood and bone.
