Discerning Palates of the Past
An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Crop Cultivation and Plant Usage in India
Author: Seetha Narahari Reddy Series: International Monographs in Prehistory: Ethnoarchaeology Series
This book analyses the agricultural and pastoral infrastructure of the Mature and Late Harappan cultures (c. 2500-1700 BC) of northwest India, using ethnographic studies of crop processing, palaeoethnobotany, and carbon isotope analysis.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Summary
This book analyses the agricultural and pastoral infrastructure of the Mature and Late Harappan cultures (c. 2500-1700 BC) of northwest India, using ethnographic studies of crop processing, palaeoethnobotany, and carbon isotope analysis.
Description
This book analyzes the agricultural and pastoral infrastructure of the Mature and Late Harappan cultures (c. 2500-1700 BC) of northwest India. The economic role of drought-resistant millet crops is reconstructed using ethnographic studies of crop processing, palaeoethnobotany, and carbon isotope analysis. Reddy's results reveal that simply recovering crop seeds from archaeological contexts does not prove local crop cultivation, and she suggests how agricultural production of millet crops for human food and for animal fodder may have been economically interwoven in the Harappan civilization. This study demonstrates the interpretive strength of developing ethnographic models to distinguish local cultivation from the consumption of grain grown elsewhere, and new directions are provided for discerning archaeologically how pastoralism and agriculture may be integrated in complex economic systems.
Critic Reviews
About the Author
by Seetha Narahari Reddy
Product Details
Returns
This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.
