Carla M. Sinopoli

Economic diversity and integration in a pre-colonial Indian empire

Abstract Empires contain a multiplicity of productive systems and strategies which may be differentially integrated with each other and the center. This paper examines six aspects of agricultural and craft production in the south Indian empire of Vijayanagara (c. AD 1340–1700). Agricultural production in the diverse ecological zones of the empire was integrated primarily through Hindu temples, and trade and craft production through temples and taxation. The economic value and political role of the goods produced, as well as the location of the producers, were the principal factors in determining the nature and degree of imperial involvement in production.

Characterizing the Stoneware "Dragon Jars" in the Guthe Collection: Chemical, Decorative, and Formal Patterning

This paper presents a multifaceted study of a collection of stoneware ceramic vessels in the Guthe Collection of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan. These vessels, recovered in the Philippines but manufactured in multiple production sites across East and Southeast Asia, provide insights into premodern economic interactions and maritime trade. Our study of this collection drew on multiple approaches to identify coherent groupings of vessels associated with locations and traditions of production. These include instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) of pastes; laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) of glazes; stylistic analysis of decorative motifs and their execution; and study of morphological attributes. Results of our analyses point to at least four production areas for these ubiquitous trade wares and lay the groundwork for future research on Southeast Asian maritime trade from the twelfth through nineteenth centuries A.D.

The Archaeology of Empires: A View from South Asia

Archaeological and historic analyses of early empires has received considerable attention in recent years. This article examines major issues and challenges in the archaeology of empires and illustrates some of these with examples from the Vijayanagara empire of southern India. Four main challenges are identified: the vast scale of early empires, the broad internal variability that characterizes all archaic empires, the diverse and abundant sources of evidence that we must control, and the rapid pace of imperial development and collapse which often still exceeds the resolution of archaeological chronologies. The article calls for a comparative context from which to examine similarities and differences among imperial polities and their material manifestations.

FROM THE LION THRONE: POLITICAL AND SOCIAL DYNAMICS OF THE VIJAYANAGARA EMPIRE

The fourteenth- through seventeenth-century A.D. Vijayanagara empire of south India spanned a vast area and incorporated diverse ethnic, linguistic, socioeconomic and political groups. Beyond the imperial bounds, Vijayanagara was also part of complex subcontinental political and cultural nexus, with cooperative and antagonistic relations with neighboring states and empires. In this paper, I examine both scales of these relations: the local responses to empire and the nature and creation of an imperial identity within the broader framework of subcontinental politics. As inhabitants of incorporated regions within the empire maintained aspects of their regional identities, they were also drawn into the broader polity through both economic and symbolic practices. And even as it incorporated local traditions of conquered states, Vijayanagaras court also forged a distinctive imperial identity by adopting and adapting cultural, political, and military elements from a larger subcontinental framework.

Besieged! Contemporary political, cultural and economic challenges to museums in the academy as seen from Ann Arbor

In this article, we discuss some recent experiences of two museums at the University of Michigan. We use these cases – of the removal of Native American dioramas from the Exhibit Museum of Natural History and of responses to repatriation by the Museum of Anthropology – as a lens through which to examine the challenges, and the potentials, of university museums. We begin by describing the museums within the broader framework of museum culture at the University of Michigan, and the recent financial and organizational challenges they have faced. Moving from these structural challenges, we shift to debates about the content and missions of two museums that in somewhat different ways are each involved in disputes over culture and ownership. We explore how each museum has responded to these disputes and how each has interacted with multiple stakeholder communities, both within and beyond the university. We conclude by suggesting that the conflicts themselves are productive and that university museums can play important roles in engaging students, researchers, descendent communities, and the larger public in discussions of complex ethical and

Channabasappa Soodayya Patil 1951-2001

DR. CHANNABASAPPA SOODAYYA (C. S.) PATIL, Deputy Director of the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Karnataka, India, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack in October 2001. Dr. Patil was a gifted scholar of epigraphy, architectural history, and archaeology who, in 20 books and more than 100 articles, made important contributions to our understandings of the South Indian past. Dr. Patil received his Ph.D. from Karnatak University in Dharwad in 1990. Among his many additional academic degrees were a Diploma in Epigraphy from Karnatak University, a Diploma in Archaeology from the Archaeological Survey of India, and a degree in Sanskrit from KSEE Board in Bangalore. He also undertook training in conservation and chemical preservation and held a number of international fellowships, including the Charles Wallace India Trust Visiting Fellowship, University of Edinburgh. He was hired by the Karnataka Directorate of Archaeology and Museums as an assistant curator in 1977, and rose through the ranks to become deputy director in 1994. C. S. Patil was a passionate scholar and a tireless researcher of the history and prehistory of Karnataka. lie was an avid fieldworker, and even as his administrative duties became more onerous, he continued to energetically document archaeological sites spanning from later prehistory to the seventeenth century A.D. This often meant taking all-night bus trips from his office in Mysore to spend two or three days in non-stop fieldwork, followed by a return overnight trip so that he could be in his office early the next morning. From 1979-1984, Dr. Patil supervised the Karnataka Departments excavations at Vijayanagara, while also conducting his doctoral research on early medieval temples of Raichur and Bellary District, producing a volume that still stands as the authoritative work on the subject. In 1984-1985 he was selected as a member of a Government of India team to participate in excavations at Madinat Hamad in Bahrain. Dr. Patil had long-standing interests in the forts of southern India and documented more than 70 such sites throughout the state. In the 1990s, he began a collaborative project with R. Barry Lewis, (1) of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he was a research associate who focused on Chitradurga Fort and its environs, Dr. Patil also conducted research at several Megalithic and Early Historic sites. Among his proudest accomplishments in the field was his discovery of an Ashokan edict at Udegolam, Karnataka. (2) Dr. Patil balanced his love of fieldwork with an interest in epigraphy. Working with his wife, Vinoda Patil, he had embarked on a planned fifteen-volume publication series of the Inscriptions of Karnataka. These volumes sought to compile all reported and recently discovered inscriptions (many discovered by Dr. Patil himself) from the fifteen northern districts of Karnataka State. The first four of those volumes (in English) were published before his death, with the first two also published in Kannada. Among his many research interests, Dr. Patil had been systematically studying the narrative sculptures of southern India, particularly those depicting Panchatantra stories. He documented more than 100 narrative sculptures from throughout the state and presented his findings in three books and at invited lectures and conferences in London, Edinburgh, the Netherlands, and the U.S. From the late 1970s until his death, C. S. Patil worked with many international collaborators from the United States, Europe, and Bahrain. His early involvement with the Vijayanagara Research Project, directed by Drs. John M. Fritz, George Michell, and M. S. Nagaraja Rao, was both formative in his career and created personal and professional bonds that endured throughout his life. Other international collaborators included R., Barry Lewis, James Shaffer (Case Western Reserve University), Kathleen D. Morrison and Mark T. …

Central Indian Iron Age

There has been little paleoclimatic research in central India, but climatic conditions during the Central Indian Iron Age are believed to be largely similar to modern conditions. Inland Central India is dominated by a monsoon climate, with seasonal rains falling between June and September. Annual rainfall is low and patchy, averaging c. 400 to 800 mm.

South Indian Iron Age

There has been little paleoclimatic research in South India, but climatic conditions during the South Indian Iron Age are believed to be largely similar to modern conditions. South India is dominated by a monsoon climate, with seasonal rains falling between June and September. The southeastern part of the region also receives precipitation from winter monsoons (November-January). Rainfall varies considerably, with means ranging from more than 3000 mm on the western coast to less than 600 mm in inland upland regions of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Sites are found in all of these zones.

Studying Archaeological Ceramics

The first step in any study of archaeological materials is, necessarily, ordering the material into some sort of classificatory system. A pile of undifferentiated sherds can tell us nothing about their producers other than that they made pottery. Classifications may vary considerably, both in how they are generated and in their level of specificity. Bowls versus Jars or Plain versus Decorated are simple binary typologies that provide one way of ordering a body of material. Classing a bowl as a Plain Bowl with Out-turning Rim and Shell Temper provides a more detailed and inclusive definition of a group of vessels.

Directions in Ceramic Research

Ceramics are among the most common classes of artifacts recovered in many archaeological contexts. Because of this, we rely on ceramics to answer many of the questions we wish to ask about the human past. The relations between ceramic variability and these questions—on political, social, economic, or ideological organization and change—are not always obvious or straightforward. In many cases, other classes of material culture might be more suited to approaching such questions. For example, clothing styles, tattoos, and other perishable media of expression would probably be more useful than ceramics in many contexts for considering questions of social organization and the definition and expression of social boundaries. Goods with high political and economic significance may be more subject to administrative control in early states than domestic ceramic vessels. Yet ceramics are often what archaeologists have to work with. Although they may not be suited to all questions, careful work within a logical theoretical framework can enable us to use ceramics to answer a broad range of questions that go beyond the construction of traditional typologies, chronologies, and the identification of broad culture areas.