Recent advances in the fields of archaeology and history, together with contributions from the sciences, have contributed enormously to the interpretation of archaeological remains and have helped refine our understanding of the Indian subcontinent’s past. In particular, archaeological research has thrown invaluable light on the earliest human presence here, now traced back to 1.5 million years; similarly, pastoralists of Ladakh are dated to the 9th millennium BCE. Human mobility and interactions in prehistory laid a firm foundation for later interactions, trade and economic activity, and the rise of civilization.
The contributions of archaeology for those periods devoid of written evidences is enormous: for instance, we can now understand the entire gamut of Harappan civilization, its lifestyles, trade, economy, technology, among other aspects. Even for later periods endowed with written records, archaeological studies compliment and support them with a variety of material evidence, often supplemented by scientific investigations that considerably enhance our understanding and interpretation of excavated materials. IIT Gandhinagar’s Archaeological Sciences Centre was established to promote the application of sciences to the analysis, research and interpretation of archaeological remains; in a few years, it has contributed applications of sciences in areas of ceramic petrology, ancient technology, palaeobotany, archaeometallurgy, ancient hydrology, surveying and 3D techniques, to name a few.
The Archaeological Sciences Centre proposes to conduct a monthly webinar series from October 2020 for the benefit of students, researchers, scholars and the wider public, by bringing together a host of expert archaeologists and historians to share their recent research and findings. The webinars will be hosted in Google Meet / Zoom platform. Each lecture (of 60 minutes followed by 15 minutes of discussion) will be hosted once a month, either on a Saturday or Sunday. Lectures will be recorded and later hosted on a separate YouTube channel.
