ANCIENT INDIAN OCEAN CORRIDORS - University of · PDF filea joint ucl-university of oxford. conference to be held at. the school of archaeology. university of oxford. n. ovember

A JOINT UCL-UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD CONFERENCE TO BE HELD AT

THE SCHOOL OF ARCHAEOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

NOVEMBER 7-8, 2009

ANCIENT INDIAN OCEAN CORRIDORS PLACING COASTAL AND ISLAND SOUTH ASIA IN THEIR

BROADER INDIAN OCEAN CONTEXT

1 | P a g e ANCIENT INDIAN OCEAN CORRIDORS CONFERENCE

INFORMATION FOR THOSE ATTENDING THE CONFERENCE The conference covers two days, and is open to all those interested in attending, as is the conference reception and dinner on Saturday night (though there are limited numbers for the latter, so please sign up now if you are interested, to avoid disappointment). It is however necessary to reserve a conference place, and submit payment in advance in order to attend. Conference venue: The conference will be held at the Lecture Theatre, Oxford University Centre for the Environment (OUCE) within the old Dyson Perrins Laboratory building in the University Science Area. Access to the OUCE and the adjacent Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art is via Hinshelwood Road, which is off of South Parks Road. Please see the map below. Conference fee: £7/day students; £14/day all others Reception and dinner venue: The conference dinner will take place on Saturday 7 November at Worcester College. The college is located at the western end of Beaumont Street. Please see the attached map. Dinner fee: £37/person Booking and paying: To attend the conference and dinner, it is necessary to book and pay in advance (this is to ensure catering is adequate). The link for booking and paying can be found on the conference website at: http://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/conferences/articles/ancient-indian-ocean-corridors.html The last date for reserving and paying a conference place is Friday 30 October. The last date for reserving and paying for a reception/dinner place is Monday 26 October. Please note that dinner places are limited, and will be offered on a first come, first serve basis.

ANCIENT INDIAN OCEAN CORRIDORS

PLACING COASTAL AND ISLAND SOUTH ASIA IN THEIR BROADER INDIAN OCEAN CONTEXT


Map: The map below shows the main conference, dinner and accommodation venues.

School of Geography and the Environment (Dyson Perrins Bluilding)Hinshelwood Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY

Worcester College (Linbury Building) Oxford, OX1 2HB Tel. 01865-278300

Department for Continuing Education , Rewley House,1 Wellington Square, Oxford, OX1 2JA Tel. 01865-270360

Old DysonLaboratory Perrins building

CONFERENCE

DINNER

ACCOMMODATION

Queries Please contact Mitsuko Ito (Watanabe) at [email protected] if you have any queries. Conference organisers: Dr. Nicole Boivin, Oxford Dr. Dorian Fuller, UCL

Dr. Michael Petraglia, Oxford Mrs. Mitsuko Watanabe, Oxford


DAY 1: SATURDAY 7 NOVEMBER SESSION I Chair: Prof. Stephen Oppenheimer (University of Oxford) 8:30: Registration and coffee/tea 9:15 Welcome Prof. Chris Gosden (School of Archaeology, University of Oxford) 9:30 Human colonisation of the Indian Ocean Rim: An introduction Dr. Michael Petraglia (School of Archaeology, University of Oxford) 10:00 Assessing models of dispersal and innovation for the Pleistocene origins of microliths in South Asia Dr. Michael Haslam (School of Archaeology, University of Oxford) 10:30 Sri Lanka’s late Pleistocene rockshelters: Their regional archaeological significance Dr. H. Nimal Perera (Sri Lanka Department of Archaeology) 11:00: Break for coffee/tea 11:30 Modern foragers in the Pleistocene rainforest: Geoarchaeology of prehistoric rockshelters in southwestern Sri Lanka Dr. Nikos Kourampas (Office of Lifelong Learning, University of Edinburgh), Prof. Ian Simpson (School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling), Dr. Ana Polo Diaz (Department of Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology, University of the Basque Country, Spain), Dr. Nimal Perera (Sri Lanka Department of Archaelogy), Dr. Siran Deraniyagala (Sri Lanka Department of Archaelogy), Dr. Dorian Fuller ( Institute of Archaeology, University College London) 12:00 South India and Sri Lanka in the wider Indian Ocean: Early corridors, connections and contacts Dr. Nicole Boivin (Sealinks Project, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford) 12:30 Tracking dispersal patterns from Asia to Africa through taro phylogeography Dr. Robin Allaby (Sealinks Project, Warwick Life Sciences, University of Warwick) and Ms. Ilaria Grimaldi (Sealinks Project, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford) 1:00 Break for lunch


SESSION II Chair: Prof. Stephen Shennan (Institute of Archaeology, UCL) 2:00 Notes on the history of anthropogenic flora around the Indian Ocean: Evidence from the movement of weeds Dr. Dorian Fuller (Sealinks Project, Institute of Archaeology, University College London) 2:30 Genetic history of Mikea hunter-gatherers and other Malagasy ethnic groups within the Indian Ocean context Mr. Harilanto Razafindrazaka (Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology and Scanning Imagery, University of Toulouse), Dr. François-Xavier Ricaut (AMIS, University of Toulouse), Mr. Mélanie Capredon (AMIS, University of Toulouse), Dr. Jean-Michel Dugoujon (AMIS, University of Toulouse), Prof. Clement Sambo (Laboratory of Cultural Anthropology, Ecole Normale Supérieure, University of Toliara, Madagascar), Prof. Louis Paul Randriamarolaza (Laboratory of Cultural Anthropology, University of Antananarivo, Madagascar), Prof. Bertrand Ludes (AMIS, University of Toulouse), Prof. Eric Crubézy (AMIS, University of Toulouse) 3:00 Malagasy etymologies: New evidence from languages in Borneo Dr. Alexander Adelaar (Sealinks Project; Linguistics, Louvain University & Asian Institute, University of Melbourne) 3:30: Break for coffee/tea 4:00 Archaeological imprints of maritime contacts in ancient Sri Lanka Mr. Wijerathne Bohingamuwa (Sealinks Project, Ruhana University, Sri Lanka) 4:30 When the Bay of Bengal met the South China Sea: Cultural dialogue in the Thai-Malay Peninsula in the first millennium BCE Dr. Bérénice Bellina (CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research), Paris) 5:00 Malayic Sea-People crews on shipping across the Indian Ocean (approximately 500 BCE – 500 CE) Mr. Waruno Mahdi (Sealinks Project, Fritz Haber Institute, Max Planck Society) 5:30 A new Austroasiatic homeland and possible implications for ancient interactions in the Indian Ocean littoral Prof. George van Driem (Sealinks Project & Himalayan Language Project, Leiden University) 7:00 Wine Reception and Dinner at Worchester College


DAY 2: SUNDAY 8 NOVEMBER SESSION III Chair: Prof. Peter Mitchell (University of Oxford) 9:00 Ancient maritime corridors between Africa and Indonesia Prof. Gwyn Campbell (Indian Ocean World Centre (IOWC), McGill University) 9:30 Phylogeographic study of chicken mitochondrial DNA reveals ancient Old world maritime and terrestrial trading routes Prof. Gro BØjrnstad (International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi & Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, Oslo), Prof. Han Jianlin (ILRI - CAAS, Beijing), Dr. Joram Mwacharo (University of Nottingham), Mr. Zhao Shenguo (ILRI - CAAS, Beijing), Prof. Olivier Hanotte (University of Nottingham & International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi) 10:00 Early Historic cultural interactions in the northeastern Indian Ocean (Bay of Bengal) region (BC 500-AD 500) Dr. V. Selvakumar (Department of Epigraphy and Archaeology, Tamil University) 10:30: Break for coffee/tea 11:00 The dispersal of boat-building techniques in the Indian Ocean Mr. Tom Hoogervorst (Sealinks Project, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford) 11:30 Linking South and Southeast Asia: Recent archaeobotanical evidence in Iron Age peninsular Thailand Ms. Cristina Castillo (Institute of Archaeology, University College London) 12:00 Archaeology of the Maldives: Role of trade and polity Dr. K. Krishnan and Ms. Smitha S. Kumar (Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda) 12:30 Break for lunch


SESSION IV Chair: Professor Mark Pollard (University of Oxford) 1:30 Indo-Roman trade from an Indian perspective: Reclaiming agency in ancient Tamilakam Ms. Julie A. Hanlon (Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago) 2:00 Locating the ancient port of Muziris: New evidence from Pattanam on the Malabar Coast Dr. P.J.Cherian (Kerala Council for Historical Research), Dr. K.P. Shajan (High Commission of India, London) and Dr. V.Selvakumar (Department of Epigraphy and Archaeology, Tamil University) 2:30 Dvipa Sukhadhara: The forgotten Island of Bliss Mr. Julian Jansen van Rensburg (MARES Project, University of Exeter) 3:00: Break for coffee/tea 3:30 Early Chinese contacts within the Indian Ocean Mr. Kyungkyu Kim (School of Archaeology, University of Oxford) 4:00 Can we connect maritime trade and South Asian urbanisation? Buddhism and Early Historic traffic through the Western Ghats Mr. Gethin Rees (Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge) 4:30 From astrolabes and stick-charts to ports: The study of cognitive awareness and the architecture of space Ms. Jennifer Craig (Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford) 5:00 Home and the world: Forests, forest products, and forest peoples of the Western Ghats Dr. Kathleen Morrison (Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago) & Mark T. Lycett (Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago) 5:30 Discussant: Paul Lane, University of York


ABSTRACTS (Alphabetical order by first author name) Malagasy etymologies: New evidence from languages in Borneo Alexander Adelaar (Sealinks Project; Linguistics, Louvain University and Asian Institute, University of Melbourne) Etymologies adduce important information about the social, cultural and political history of a linguistic community. This is particularly clear in the case of Madagascar. Its settlement and prehistory as well as the precise origins of its people have been the object of research for at least 170 years (since Wilhelm von Humboldt 1838), and linguistic evidence has played a crucial role in this quest. In this paper I trace a number of Malagasy words to Proto East Barito on the basis of material that I found in publications concerning the East Barito languages Bayan, Bosap, Lawangan and Paku, which were issued by the Pusat Bahasa (National Language Centre) in Jakarta, Indonesia. I also present etymologies concerning words that Malagasy holds in common with languages in Borneo other than East Barito ones. Such words may seem to be less pertinent to ancient Malagasy history as they are not inherited from East Barito and hence are not solid evidence for the East Barito subgroup. They are also not borrowed from other Indonesian languages (such as Malay) and therefore do not tell us about the general cultural and socio-political setting in Indonesia at the time the early Malagasy left Indonesia. However, these words are still relevant as their origins are typically Bornean. They may tell us about the flora and fauna of Borneo and about the material culture shared by its inhabitants in general at the time of the early migrations. In this category, I propose etymologies for lakana ‘dugout’, lamba ‘textile, cloth’, tomamotamo ‘yellow’, vitsika ‘ant’, varika ‘lemur’ and valiha, a string instrument and Madagascar’s national musical instrument par excellence. Tracking dispersal patterns from Asia to Africa through taro phylogeography Robin Allaby (Sealinks Project, Warwick Life Sciences, University of Warwick) and Ilaria Grimaldi (Sealinks Project, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford) One way to track the movements of early peoples is to track the movements of the plants they utilized through phylogeography. Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is one of three crops, along with banana (Musa acuminata) and yam (Dioscorea alata), which are of Oceanic origin and generally assumed to have arrived spread together from south or southeast Asia to Africa. There are several hypotheses concerning the mode and route of transport of these crops. In the taro project we will use phylogenetic techniques to test these different hypotheses in order to identify the most likely route that taro was brought through in order to reach Africa, which in turn will inform us about the seafaring technology that would have been utilized to facilitate the spread. When the Bay of Bengal met the South China Sea: Cultural dialogue across the Thai-Malay Peninsula in the first millennium BCE Bérénice Bellina, (CNRS, Paris) For millennia, the Thai-Malay peninsula is known to have been a crossroads for regional and trans-Asiatic exchange, receiving and redistributing cultural features from East and


South Asia. The work currently carried out on first millennium BCE sites in the upper part of the peninsula, until recently un-investigated, has uncovered unexpectedly complex political, social and economic organisations, reflecting and enlightening evolutions taking place amongst neighbours from around the Bay of Bengal and South China Sea. Archaeological imprints of maritime contacts in ancient Sri Lanka B.H.M.W. Bohingamuwa (Sealinks Project, Department of History and Archaeology, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka) The historical and cultural formation of Sri Lanka and its identity have been deeply influenced by the internal dynamics of its island character, and its openness to the countries and cultures beyond its shores. It is suggested that the island was linked to southern India by land bridges several times during periods of low sea level prior to 7000 BP. This had a strong bearing on the peopling of the island during prehistoric times. As the island is located at the southern extremity of the Indian subcontinent and in the middle of the Indian Ocean at the intersection of a number of major trans-oceanic naval routes, it would have been impossible for it to remain isolated and uninfluenced by the ever advancing maritime technology and seafaring activities of the wider Indian Ocean. The earliest settlements so far recorded on the island of Sri Lanka are from the south-eastern coast, and are securely dated to 125,000--75,000 BP. Clear archaeological evidence for maritime contacts may be dated to the end of the second millennium BC. Proto-historic early Iron Age cultural remains are recorded from areas close to the northern and the north western coast, and south Indian migrations are said to have played a pivotal role in the introduction of these iron-using cultures. From about the middle of the first millennium BC, archaeological and historical evidence provides better evidence for contact with cultures beyond the immediately contiguous coastal regions of the South Asian subcontinent, particularly with northern India. Subsequent centuries saw increasing navigational traffic in the Indian Ocean linking east with west through coastal and transoceanic sea routes. Sri Lankan and other eastern and western historical sources and archaeological findings recount the role that Sri Lanka played in these commercial and cultural contacts. Recent discoveries, particularly from the south-eastern coast, provide evidence for subsistence patterns in coastal Sri Lanka, indicating heavy dependence on marine food resources during the pre and proto-historic periods. An overwhelming amount of evidence, including numismatic findings, inscriptional data, an Amaravati style limestone plaque from Ambalantota, a carnelian and shell bead workshop at Tissamaharama and other indestructible archaeological materials related to ports and anchorages provide ample of evidence for maritime seafaring and Indian Ocean contacts prior to 1000 A.D. Archaeological data found that has emerged from coastal sites of the southern, south eastern, northern and northern western Sri Lanka will be interwoven with historical evidence in the present study to elucidate understanding of maritime contacts in ancient Sri Lanka. South India and Sri Lanka in the wider Indian Ocean: Early corridors, connections and contacts Nicole Boivin (Sealinks Project, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford) Recent analysis of early Indian Ocean contact, dispersals and trade in the Western Indian Ocean suggests the existence of two key spheres of long-distance exchange. The earliest emerges in the northern Arabian Sea in the Bronze Age, and draws in particular the


savannah and coastal regions of north India, the Arabian peninsula and the Horn of Africa into contact. The other emerges somewhat later, in the middle Indian Ocean, and extends interaction through the tropical zones from East Africa to Southeast Asia. The latter exchanges have been less systematically studied, and remain poorly dated, but simulation models and other preliminary studies suggest that the southern tip of India, Sri Lanka and their surrounding archipelagos would have been key stopping points on voyages in this zone. Phylogeographic study of chicken mitochondrial DNA reveals ancient Old world maritime and terrestrial trading routes Prof. Gro BØjrnstad (International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi & Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, Oslo), Prof. Han Jianlin (ILRI - CAAS, Beijing), Dr. Joram Mwacharo (University of Nottingham), Mr. Zhao Shenguo (ILRI - CAAS, Beijing), Prof. Olivier Hanotte (University of Nottingham & International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi) The chicken is the most numerous and with the largest geographic distributions of all our livestock species. Domestic forms are present today all across Africa, Asia and Europe; while wild ancestors, are found from the Indian subcontinent to the East, to the south of South East Asia and South East and South West China. These populations represent the depository of the genetic diversity of the domestic species which has been shaped throughout human history. We present here the results of a global geographic analysis of mitochondrial D-loop sequences from more than 4900 indigenous chicken samples, including 1107 Genebank sequences. A total 421 haplotypes were identified within domestic chicken. All sequences were closely related or identical to G. gallus ssp sequences confirming the maternal ancestral status of this species for all domestic chicken. Detailed phylogeographic analysis allows us to propose geographic centers of origin for the main haplogroups as well as their maritime dispersion routes across the Asian seas and terrestrial movements within Africa and Asia. Results will be presented and discussed. Ancient maritime corridors between Africa and Indonesia Gwyn Campbell (Indian Ocean World Centre, McGill University) There is considerable debate as to the timing and routes of early maritime connections between Africa and Indonesia, notably with regard to the peopling of Madagascar. This paper seeks to establish the historiographical context for the debate, and to evaluate the arguments as to routes in the light of evidence concerning the distribution of boats and shipbuilding techniques, and flora and fauna, long-distance commodity exchange, and human migration. Linking South and Southeast Asia: Recent archaeobotanical evidence in Iron Age Peninsular Thailand Cristina Castillo (Institute of Archaeology, University College London) The Iron Age in Southeast Asia is distinctly known as the period when Indian contact becomes visible in the form of technology, raw materials and finished items of South Asian origin. Sites scattered across both mainland and insular Southeast Asia provide evidence of material culture with a definite South Asian signature. The author’s on-going research contributes further evidence concerning the links to South Asia by examining the archaeobotanical evidence of sites found in Peninsular Thailand belonging to the late prehistoric period. So far, most archaeobotanical research conducted in Mainland Southeast Asia has focused on rice and its possible origins in China. However,


archaeobotanical research in two Iron Age sites in Peninsular Thailand, Khao Sam Kaeo and Phukhao Thong, is providing evidence of Indian crops never reported in earlier dated sites. The introduction of these crops to Southeast Asia is little understood and further systematic archaeobotanical research in archaeological contexts is needed. The ancient port of Muziris: evidence on Indian Ocean exchanges from Pattanam, Kerala, India. P.J.Cherian (Kerala Council for Historical Research), K.P. Shajan ((High Commission of India, London) and V.Selvakumar (Department of Epigraphy and Archaeology, Tamil University) The archaeological excavations (2007, 2008 & 2009) undertaken by the Kerala Council for Historical Research [KCHR] at Pattanam, (10°09.434(N; 76°12.587(E)) - a small hamlet, in the Ernakulam district of Kerala, India, located 25 km north of Kochi- represent a pioneering inter-disciplinary research initiative in Kerala archaeology. The site has produced bountiful evidence for extensive external & regional contacts, capable of disproving the hitherto dominant ‘West appropriating the East’ perspectives on ‘Indo- Roman trade’. The presentation will discuss the excavation finds and argue that the site may be the ancient port of Muziris. The focus will be on contextualizing the finds as part of wider Indian Ocean exchange systems instead of ‘Indo-Roman’ trade. The site of Pattanam covers about 45 hectares. Due to intense habitation activities and sand quarrying it is a ‘disturbed’ location, though one in which the archaeological wealth dormant underneath has only recently been revealed. Due to the dense population of the area, and reluctance of local land holders, extensive excavation is not possible and only an area of about 300 sq m has been excavatable in two locations within the site. The tentative cultural sequence of the site denotes 4 periods – Iron Age- Early Historic transition [? 10th C BC to 3rd C BC]; Early Historic [2nd C BC to 4th C AD]; Early Medieval [5th C AD to 10th C AD] and Modern [17th C AD to the present]. The reason for desertion of the site between 11th C - 16th C is yet not clear. Pattanam has an antiquity dating back to the first millennium BC, as revealed by AMS analysis. The first occupants were probably indigenous people who settled there in the first half of the first millennium BC. The scanty evidence, including black & red ware, coarse red ware, iron objects and bone pieces, demands closer analysis to understand the nature of the settlement, technological assemblage, and palaeo-environment of this coastal site. Of great significance at Pattanam has been the discovery of West Asian pottery and rouletted ware in the Iron Age- Early Historic transition layer, implying that Pattanam was a commercial location exposed to long distance and regional trade prior to Roman contact. The next cultural phase with remarkable urban features and maritime activities marks the Roman arrival, indicating that the site’s floruit seems to have been between the 2nd century BC and 4th century AD. The most important finds include sherds of Roman amphora and terra sigillata, West Asian pottery including the green-blue Turquoise Glazed Pottery, rouletted ware, Roman glass bowl fragments, semi precious stone/glass beads, Chinese ceramics, gold ornaments and a large quantity of iron objects. It is noteworthy that even at the peak of Roman trade, the West Asian contacts continued to be active.


A major feature excavated was a wharf made of laterite granules mixed with lime and clay, along with a dugout canoe and bollards. The AMS C14 results from University of Georgia have determined the canoe and bollards as belonging to the 1st century BC/AD. The waterlogged area near the wharf fetched botanical remains, including a rope made of unidentified plant fibre, teak, pepper, cardamom, paddy, coconut shell and frankincense. The evidences further point to the possibility that site had the benefit of the services of a large number of artisans and technicians belonging to the indigenous population or the local trade circuits. The plethora of artifacts and structures indicate that this site could not have survived without a skilled workforce of blacksmiths (large quantity of iron objects like nails, tools etc.), coppersmiths (copper objects), goldsmiths (ornaments), potters (huge quantity of domestic vessels, lamps, oven and other terracotta objects), brick makers, bricklayers, roofers (large quantity of bricks and triple grooved roof-tiles), stone bead makers, lapidaries (as indicated by variety of semi-precious stone beads, cameo blanks and stone debitage), weavers (signified by spindle whorls and jerry), stonecutters/polishers etc. Soil loci of blackish and grey hues indicate some type of kiln activity. Chemical analyses of the soil samples are necessary to understand the nature of industrial activity. The urban, multi-cultural and maritime features are the principal attributes of the Pattanam site. Elements of early 'urbanization' are evident from the burnt brick architecture, clay floors, triple grooved roof tiles, storage jars, ring well and fine pottery. The architectural features are suggestive of a planned settlement or a commercial centre, while the other antiquities indicate fairly extensive foreign contacts. The wharf gives a clinching clue to the maritime association of the site. The nature and quantity of the archaeological evidence, geological data and the location context of the site suggest that this site could be part of the ancient site of Muziris. From astrolabes and stick-charts to ports: The study of cognitive awareness and the architecture of space Jennifer Craig (Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford) My DPhil research is focused on the Philippines’ sixteenth century maritime archaeology. Historical texts show a change in the archipelago’s harbour constructions from the time of Magellan/Pigafetta’s accounts to texts recorded shortly after the occupation of Legaspi. Initially, when the Spanish conquistadores traded with the ‘Filipinos’, natives boarded outrigger canoes and sailed out to deeper harbour waters to meet anchored Spanish Galleons/Naos. Shortly after Legaspi ‘founded’ Manila, documents indicate the Spanish ships ported. How did this happen so quickly? In order to grasp ‘Filipino’ perspectives, the research turned to anthropological records of the entire Southeast Asian region. These subjects have led to the study of the material culture of cognitive awareness, thereby directly relating to European astrolabes versus Southeast Asian/Pacific stick charts. In what way do these artefacts relate to the user’s understanding of space and how might that translate to the architecture of coastal structures? A new Austroasiatic homeland and possible implications for ancient interactions in the Indian Ocean littoral George van Driem (Sealinks Project & Himalayan Language Project, Leiden University) Scholars have sought to situate the Austroasiatic Urheimat as far west as the Indus valley and as far east as the Yangtze delta or insular Southeast Asia. The principal contenders


today for the Austroasiatic homeland are the Indian subcontinent, mainland Southeast Asia and the middle Yangtze. Genetic, archaeological, palaeobotanical and linguistic evi-dence will be examined to present the case for a new Austroasiatic homeland. What im-plications does the proposed Austroasiatic homeland hypothesis have for ancient interactions in the Indian Ocean littoral? Notes on the history of anthropogenic flora around the Indian Ocean: Evidence from the movement of weeds Dorian Fuller (Sealinks Project, Institute of Archaeology, University College London) It is well-known that several crops spread in prehistory from Africa to India, while others spread from tropical Asia to Africa. After briefly surveying these, this paper will make a first exploration of those companion (commensal) plants that might have accompanied the long-distance spread of crops and the early human contacts, namely weeds. This includes some weedy plants that are possible garden crops, such as cucurbits, and some that are of uncertain continent of origin, but it also includes some classic field weeds, like buttonweeds and carpet weeds. Both the historical biogeography and archaeobotany of weeds is underdeveloped, but shows great potential to provide insights into both the nature of cultivation systems but also the historical connections between cultivation systems in different world regions. Working from modern floras and distribution data in India, East Africa and the Seychelles, a number of species will be identified and reviewed as candidates for prehistoric human dispersal as incidental weed contaminants of transported grains. Many of these are originally weeds of Asian millets or dry rice that have come to Africa as weeds of African crops. The possibility that some of these accompanied back dispersal of Asian varieties of crops that were originally Africa (e.g. pearl millet varieties from India that came back to Africa) should be considered. Indo-Roman trade from an Indian perspective: Reclaiming agency in ancient Tamilakam Julie A. Hanlon (Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago) Early scholarship on Indo-Roman trade approached the subject from a Western Classical perspective, relying heavily on textual and archaeological data from the Mediterranean. In doing so, the West took on a dominant role. The notion that foreign colonies were largely responsible for structuring and organizing the trade seemed undeniable. In this view, the inhabitants of South India were relegated to the position of passive recipients of foreign goods and their supposed ‘civilizing’ effects. Within the past 15 years, historians and archaeologists have begun to reexamine and confront these early assumptions. In this paper I will review the wide range of data from Early Historic South India, particularly the area encompassing the modern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu known as Tamilakam. These data include references from classical Tamil literature, inscriptions, archaeological excavations, as well as recent material studies. In doing so, I hope to provide a view of Indo-Roman trade, from an Indian perspective, in which the ancient peoples of Tamilakam were active agents in their own trade networks stretching across the peninsula and beyond the coasts of the Indian subcontinent. Assessing models of dispersal and innovation for the Pleistocene origins of microliths in South Asia Michael Haslam (School of Archaeology, University of Oxford)


Debates over the relative roles played by dispersal, diffusion and independent innovation in technological change are as old as archaeological theory itself. Yet they continue to influence archaeological models, particularly when dealing with modern human dispersals. Here I use chronological, technological, genetic and environmental data to evaluate recent speculation that early South Asian microliths derive from human dispersal out of south and east Africa. These lines of evidence suggest that systematic microlith production was an independent South Asian innovation in the Late Pleistocene. The dispersal of boat-building techniques in the Indian Ocean Tom Hoogervorst (Sealinks Project, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford) The various regions of the Indian Ocean display a remarkable uniformity in traditional boat-building techniques and types of seafaring watercraft. This study compares the traditional boat-building techniques of East Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and insular Southeast Asia from archaeological, literary and historical linguistic points of view. Geographically, the Indian Ocean is a natural facilitator of long, ocean-going journeys. Its monsoon winds necessitate a vast knowledge of rigging, and the various regions of the Indian Ocean indeed display a high density of sail types that must have influenced each other since early times. Next to similar sail types, we also find similar methods of plank-fastening all over the Indian Ocean. Whereas Mediterranean and East Asian traditions use iron nails for plank-fastening, the traditions of the Indian Ocean almost exclusively make use of plank-sewing with organic materials, such as coconut fibre. In a much later period, propulsion devices spread at equally vast distances along the Indian Ocean, as relatively modern Chinese and especially Arab rudder types replaced or co-existed with traditional oars and paddles in East Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, but to a much lesser extent in insular Southeast Asia. One of the most spectacular innovations in Indian Ocean boat-building, however, is the dispersal of single and double outriggers. These stabilising floats, usually attached to the hull by transverse booms, allow for increased seaworthiness and advanced rigging techniques, such as manoeuvring against the wind. The outrigger is an Austronesian invention that spread to South Asia and East Africa, but not to the Middle East, in prehistoric times. Thus, the sewn outrigger boats have for centuries formed one of the most technically developed types of watercraft in the Indian Ocean and have only recently been replaced by modern boat types in most areas. The influence the regions of the Indian Ocean asserted on each other is evident from linguistic terminology. There are numerous similarities in nautical vocabulary among the languages spoken around the Indian Ocean, including Malagasy, Swahili, Arabic, Hindi, Tamil, Nicobarese and Malay. Not only the vernacular names of particular boat types, but also the terminology involving specific parts of boats, such as outriggers, have spread around the Indian Ocean. Understanding of historical linguistics is instrumental to reconstruct in which directions these names have been dispersed. Early Chinese contacts with the Indian Ocean Kyungkyu Kim (School of Archaeology, University of Oxford) According to Chinese literary sources, maritime contacts between China and South Asia started during the Former Han time (220 BC - AD 9) through the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. The Hanshu states that the country of Huangzhi, which was located in the Indian Subcontinent, sent tribute to the Han court and Han envoys visited Huangzhi


by sea routes at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. This work documents the earliest official contacts between China and South Asia by sea routes and it provides us with significant information about maritime connections and commercial activities in the 1st century AD. However, because of restricted evidence, it is not enough to simply appreciate the early stages of the ‘Maritime Silk Route’. Consequently, this presentation will try to verify early maritime contacts between China and South Asia through not only documentary evidence, but also archaeological sources and the environmental conditions of the seas. In order to understand early sea links between China and South Asia, it will also provide the Chinese view of the Indian Ocean in the early centuries AD based on documentary evidence. Modern foragers in the Pleistocene rainforest: Geoarchaeology of prehistoric rockshelters in southwestern Sri Lanka Nikos Kourampas (Office of Lifelong Learning, University of Edinburgh), Ian Simpson (School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling), Ana Polo Diaz (Department of Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology, University of the Basque Country, Spain), Nimal Perera (Sri Lanka Department of Archaelogy), Siran Deraniyagala (Sri Lanka Department of Archaelogy), Dorian Fuller (Sealinks, Institute of Archaeology, University College London) On the route of anatomically modern human dispersal from Africa in the late Pleistocene, Sri Lanka yields some of the earliest evidence of behavioural modernity in South Asia. Geometric microliths, bone and antler tools, explicit use of symbolism and putative burials in rockshelters in humid southwestern Sri Lanka evidence the presence of modern foragers from ca. 40,000 BP, if not earlier. We focus on three key rockshelters, Batadomba-lena, Kitulgala Beli-lena and Fahien-lena, which together span from beyond (?) 40,000 to ca. 5000 BP – a period of pronounced regional environmental change leading to, and including, the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and its aftermath. We combine sedimentary, faunal, floral and technological evidence to document processes of site formation and Late Quaternary landscape change and discuss the shifting ecological contexts of behavioural modernity in the Pleistocene rainforest. Heterogeneous diamictic loams with cultural content accumulated in these rockshelters through episodic colluviation and roof fall, water seepage and diverse human activities, including hearth building, on-site tool-making and processing of rainforest plants and animals. Prevalence of arboreal taxa, including large numbers of Acavid rainforest snails, amongst the latter suggests that rainforest of currently unknown composition and continuity persevered in the environs of the rockshelters even during the driest period of the LGM. Post-depositional dissolution of bone and shell, neoformation of phosphate minerals, clay and sesquioxide mobilisation and bioturbation by rockshelter floor fauna were variable and localised. Kitulgala Beli-lena registers a higher colluvial input after ca. 15,700 BP, probably reflecting intensification of the Asian Monsoon on the wane of the LGM. Terminal Pleistocene sediments at two sites ca. 25 km apart contain markedly higher human input, perhaps suggesting that rockshelter use intensified regionally during post-LGM reorganisation of the rainforest biome. Archaeology of the Maldives: Role of trade and polity K. Krishnan and Smitha S. Kumar (Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda)


The Maldives, a group of islands located towards the southwest of India and Sri Lanka, have always been overlooked by archaeologists and historians due to their small size and scarcity of minerals and other resources. However, recent archaeological investigations carried out in these islands have brought to light remains of a large number of Buddhist monastic establishments in the form of stupas, monasteries, sculptures, structures and other related vestiges prior to the arrival of Islam in the country in 1153AD, a very significant one being a Roman coin datable to 2nd century AD recovered from the Buddhist archaeological complexes. These archaeological remains support the information given in the ancient literary texts, including the pali chronicles, and accounts of Indo-Greek and Chinese travelers. This information suggest that, though smaller in size and scattered in nature with less resources, these islands did enjoy a significant position in determining the polity and economy of the countries involved in Indian Ocean trade. Within this aforesaid context and beyond it, the circumstances which led to the establishment of Buddhism followed by the emergence of urbanism in these islands require particular study. The present paper investigates the archaeological potential of the Buddhist remains of these islands in time and space and derives a proposition that urbanism developed in the Maldives due to Indian Ocean trade and integration through religious activities. The paper will present a debate on the relative chronology of the Maldives followed by evaluation of the archaeological finds, and it will situate Maldives as an important region in the context of Indian Ocean trade. Malayic Sea-People crews on shipping across the Indian Ocean (approximately 500 BCE – 500 CE) Waruno Mahdi (Sealinks Project, Fritz Haber Institute, Max Planck Society) Shipping between the Malayan Archipelago and the Near East on ships of Southeast Asian construction apparently persisted since the last half millenium BCE. The shippers appear to have spoken Malay, the crews were of various ethnic origin.

One major source of seamen was the Barito area, Southeast Kalimantan, but probably only since the 5th century CE. The present contribution is concerned with the preceding period. Descriptions in early Chinese (‘entirely black and naked bodied’, and their very name: Gulun), Indic (‘islands encompassed by waters ... [they] dwelt there’, ‘pirates’, ‘naked nomads’), Greek (‘anthropophagi’), Mon, and other sources on the one hand, and linguistic evidence, particularly of phonological particularities of loan-words, on the other, suggest that Sea-People (Orang Laut) communities around the Myanmar Coast, Malayan Peninsula, and Riau Islands were a major source of manpower for the shipping.

Those loan-words include the name of a cereal (sorghum) that was transmitted from India to Sumatra, some Greek, Chinese, and Arabic renderings of the name of an historical polity in Sumatra (Yava [dvipa]), a word for ‘ship’ borrowed into Old Mon (kbang), and several others. Other borrowings, such as a word for clove from Malay into Sanskrit and languages of the Moluccas, demonstrate that the Sea-People involved on different shipping routes apparently spoke different dialects.

All in all, these transmissions of lexical items over various routes and distances also provide grounds for a range of datings that cover the period from around 500 BCE until the appearance of Barito speakers on the shipping routes. Home and the world: Forests, forest products, and forest peoples of the Western Ghats Kathleen Morrison (Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago) & Mark T. Lycett (Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago)


The forest products of the Sahyadris or Western Ghat Mountains have long participated in networks of circulation and regimes of value far outside southern India while its peoples have generally been represented as isolated, outside the mainstreams of history. Although the wealth of these tropical forests, in the form of spices, resins, dyes, and other products fueled imperial and colonial expansion in South Asia and beyond, the historical constitution of the Ghats as a place has tended to set aside consideration of politics, power, and cultural production, constructing instead both people and places there as natural and fragile. In this paper we explore this paradox and review some of the long history of circulation and exchange involving forest products in the Indian Ocean world, from the Early Historic into the Early Modern. Sri Lanka’s late Pleistocene rockshelters: Their regional archaeological significance H. Nimal Perera (Sri Lanka Department of Archaeology) Sri Lanka occupies a pivotal geographical position along the northern rim of the Indian Ocean. As such, it can be inferred to have played a correspondingly pivotal role in the cultural dynamics of late Quaternary South Asia and Southeast Asia. If one accepts the ‘Out of Africa’ model on the origins of anatomically modern humans and their dispersal as a working hypothesis, the island would most probably have been a node on the coastal route in their spread eastwards into Southeast Asia and beyond. The study of the late Quaternary prehistory of Sri Lanka is of direct relevance to the broader investigation of late Pleistocene and early Holocene genetic and cultural dynamics of this region of the Indian Ocean. Archaeologically, in terms of preservation, the most exciting deposits in Sri Lanka occur within the rockshelters of the southwest. These are situated in hills of Precambrian gneiss, in equatorial rainforests with an annual rainfall exceeding 2500 mm. The three sites which I shall be discussing, Batadomba-lena, Kitulgala Beli-lena and Fa Hien-lena, contain cultural deposits of over 3 metres, dating from perhaps over 40,000 BP up to the mid-Holocene (radiocarbon dates on charcoal). The cultural materials excavated include geometric microliths and pressure-flaked small points, shell beads, red ochre and interments of anatomically modern humans from at least c. 38,000 BP. They are of critical importance for understanding the anatomical and behavioural evolution of early modern humans in South Asia. Human colonisation of the Indian Ocean Rim: An introduction Michael Petraglia (School of Archaeology, University of Oxford) Out of Africa dispersals along the Indian Ocean rim during the Late Pleistocene are currently a hot topic in paleoanthropology and human evolutionary studies. Geneticists have argued that populations moved Out of Africa and across the Indian Ocean rim about 60,000 years ago, travelling rapidly to Southeast Asia along coastlines. Archaeologists have argued that such population movements occurred in the Upper Palaeolithic time frame and that the colonization of Australasia was achieved by boat technology. Recent re-evaluations of the genetic and archaeological data suggest that the colonization of the Indian Ocean rim was much more complicated that previously realized. The goal of this presentation is to review what is currently known about dispersal processes in the Late Pleistocene, and to re-evaluate current models concerning the spread of humans along the Indian Ocean rim.


Genetic history of Mikea hunter-gatherers and other Malagasy ethnic groups within the Indian Ocean context. Harilanto Razafindrazaka (Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology and Scanning Imagery, University of Toulouse), François-Xavier Ricaut (AMIS, University of Toulouse), Mélanie Capredon (AMIS, University of Toulouse), Jean-Michel Dugoujon (AMIS, University of Toulouse), Clement Sambo (Laboratory of Cultural Anthropology, Ecole Normale Supérieure, University of Toliara, Madagascar), Louis Paul Randriamarolaza (Laboratory of Cultural Anthropology, University of Antananarivo, Madagascar), Bertrand Ludes (AMIS, University of Toulouse), Eric Crubézy (AMIS, University of Toulouse) The current model for the settlement of Madagascar suggests that the first human groups to reach the island did so extremely recently, around 1.5-2 kyr ago. Populations from both Africa and Island Southeast Asia played a major role in the colonisation of the island, ultimately resulting in the genetically and linguistically admixed modern Malagasy population. Beyond this broad-scale view, Madagascar also retains traces of successive cultural, linguistic and biological influences from other populations/areas surrounding the Indian Ocean. This leaves major issues unresolved regarding the spatial and temporal origin of the different components of the modern Malagasy population. In order to bring new insights to this question we studied the maternal and paternal population history (mitochondrial DNA and non-recombining Y chromosome variation) from 266 DNA samples which comprised of individuals from three ethnic groups: 127 Mikea (southwestern hunter-gatherers), 101 Vezo (southwestern semi-nomadic fisherman) and 38 Merina (central Highlanders). Our preliminary results, in addition to clarifying some aspects of Malagasy population structure, identified new genetic variations which may help to localise the Austronesian ancestors of the Malagasy, and potentially reveal connections to South Asia through the discovery of a new deep branch of mtDNA in Madagascar. Our findings bring further complexity to the current colonization model of Madagascar, and provide new sets of genetic variation to track Indian Ocean populations. Can we connect maritime trade and South Asian urbanisation? Buddhism and Early Historic traffic through the Western Ghats Gethin Rees (Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge) During the Early Historic period, ports that were situated on the Konkan coast of South Asia became involved in an Indian Ocean trade network. This presentation will evaluate the nature and importance of interaction between these ports and settlements on the interior of the Subcontinent through an examination of the archaeology of the Western Ghats. The motivations of the people who travelled through the mountains to the coastline, and the orientation of the routes that they used, will be examined. Subsequently, the intensity of traffic moving along the different routes will be evaluated based on topography, the Early Historic settlement pattern and Buddhist monasteries. Finally, the implications of this traffic, and therefore Indian Ocean trade, for the economy of the Deccan under the Satavahana Empire will be discussed. Dvipa Sukhadhara: The forgotten Island of Bliss Julian Jansen van Rensburg (MARES Project, University of Exeter) This paper will look at the island of ‘Socotra’ or, as it is better known to the many Indian traders that visited this island, Dvipa Sukhadhara. It will demonstrate the strategic position


of the island, between the entrance to the Red Sea and Africa, and assess the role it has played as a navigational landmark and transit halt for Indian navigators and merchants. To this end, it highlights the importance of the island as given in references to Indian traders from the time of the Periplus Maris Erythrean and in accounts of Indian navigators who utilised Socotra as the centre for stellar bearings to ports along the Southern Arabian and the West Indian coastlines. I argue that it is due to its location in the corridors of shipping to and from Africa, the Red Sea and India that Socotra has featured in Indian navigational charts and practices for some time. This paper will also shed light on the recent archaeological evidence for Indian sailors found in a cave on the island which is likely to have acted as a sanctuary to seafarers, with several inscriptions in Brahmi and other languages found hundreds of metres deep within in the cave. Cultural interactions in the northeastern Indian Ocean (Bay of Bengal) region (from the early Holocene to the mid-first millennium B.C.) V. Selvakumar (Department of Epigraphy and Archaeology, Tamil University) The regions near the rim of the Northeastern Indian Ocean (i.e. the Bay of Bengal) – from the Maldives to the Indonesian archipelago – are characterised by diversity in contemporary population and culture. This diversity is the result of innumerable episodes of migration and interactions of people, and the exchange of ideas, flora and commodities that have been taking place for several millennia. The coastal regions witnessed human occupation in palaeolithic times, but intense activities seem to have begun with the camping of hunter-gatherers since at least the early Holocene. The recent surface surveys on the coast of southern Tamil Nadu as part of the project titled “Landscape archaeology of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic cultures of Southern Tamil Nadu’ have brought to light Late Paleolithic sites in the hinterland and buried microlithic sites in the coastal context of the Kaviri delta as well as its hinterland. The Late Palaeolithic cultures of southern Tamil Nadu assume significance in the light of early evidence in Sri Lanka and the DNA-based research on prehistoric migrations. The recent excavations at Pillayarpatti in the Vallam Tableland have produced very clear stratigraphic evidence for the ‘Late Palaeolithic’ occupation. However this paper restricts itself to the interactions from the Early Holocene through to Early Historic period. The early finds of microliths in southern Tamil Nadu were reported only around the Pondicherry and Thirunelveli coasts. These new finds suggest that the coastal region as well as the hinterlands were intensively occupied by microlithic hunter-gatherers. During this early phase, short-distance interactions (and not just migration) may have taken place over smaller areas, such as Sri Lanka-southern tip of India, Andaman-Nicobar islands, the Bengal delta and the Indonesian archipelago. The microlithic hunter-gatherers were active coastal communities and might have developed maritime competency, including the ability to construct simpler watercraft (e.g. Kattumaram or Maram), and knowledge of wind patterns, landing points, coastal landscapes and navigational skills, out of necessity. The second phase must have begun in the early Iron Age itself, perhaps in the early first millennium B.C, when sedentary or semi-sedentary communities began to occupy the regions near to the coasts. The author’s surveys have exposed a few near-coastal Iron Age-Early Historic sites with rouletted ware in southern Tamilnadu. Formation of complex societies took place in certain regions; e.g. the Ganga Valley, which witnessed so-called ‘urbanisation’ and the rise of the faiths of Buddhism and Jainism around the mid-first millennium BC. There are debates on the inter-regional interactions proposed


on the basis of the ‘core-periphery model.’ Some of the interpretations of these interactions have been influenced by nationalist and regionalist biases. It appears that almost all communities have contributed in one way or the other to these interactions. Exchange of coastal resources such as shell, Turbinella pyrum and salt may have began in this phase. The requirement for essential commodities caused the development of coastal ports and exchange networks. The movement of Buddhism, people and commodities dominated the intraregional interactions, but more in the latter half of the first millennium BC. The available evidence shows that such interactions reached the peak in the third phase, which covers the period from the 1st century BC to the 2nd century A.D. The economic prosperity and consumerism under the Roman Empire gave a fillip to long-distance trade, and the internal developments within South and Southeast Asia, causing the efflorescence of several commercial/Buddhist centres along the rim of the Bay of Bengal. The excavated settlements have produced fine ware (Rouletted ware, Northern Black polished ware), short inscriptions in Prakrit, Singhalese and Tamil on pottery and several other artifacts for these interactions. The last phase exhibited less interaction, but definite continuity till about the 6th century A.D., and Buddhism continued to thrive in some pockets. With the rise of states and temple building activities, maritime interactions continued, but on a different scale and intensity. The proposed paper focuses on the nature of interactions, the factors behind the interactions and cultural processes based on archaeological and textual sources, from the early Holocene up to 6th century A.D.

Documents

ANCIENT INDIAN OCEAN CORRIDORS - University of · PDF filea joint ucl-university of oxford. conference to be held at. the school of archaeology. university of oxford. n. ovember