Discerning Palates of the Past - An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Crop Cultivation and Plant Usage in India (Hardcover)

Discerning Palates of the Past analyzes the agricultural and pastoral infrastructure of the Mature (ca. 2500 2000 B.C.) and Late Harappan (ca. 2000 1700 B.C.) cultures of Gujarat, Northwest India, the southernmost extension of the South Asian Harappan Civilization. The economic role of drought-resistant millet crops was reconstructed at Harappan sites using a three-pronged behavioral ecological approach which integrated ethnographic studies of crop processing, paleobotany, and carbon isotope analysis. The results reveal that simply recovering crop seeds from archaeological contexts does not prove local crop cultivation. Instead, this study establishes the interpretive strength of developing ethnographic models that distinguish signatures of local cultivation versus the consumption of grain from crops grown elsewhere. The implications of these results are further explored with respect to how agricultural production of millets for human food and for animal fodder may have been economically interwoven during the Harappan Civilization. The interpretive strength of developing ethnographic models to distinguish local cultivation from the consumption of grain grown elsewhere is demonstrated in this study, and new directions are provided for discerning archaeologically how pastoralism and agriculture may be integrated in complex economic systems."

General

Imprint:	International Monographs in Prehistory
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	International Monographs in Prehistory: Ethnoarchaeology Series
Release date:	April 2003
First published:	April 2003
Authors:	Seetha Narahari Reddy
Dimensions:	279 x 216mm (L x W)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	175
ISBN-13:	978-1-879621-37-4
Categories:	Books > Humanities > Archaeology > Environmental archaeology Books > Humanities > Archaeology > Archaeology by period / region > General Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Anthropology > General Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Human biology & related topics > Biological anthropology > General
LSN:	1-879621-37-1
Barcode:	9781879621374

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