Public Lectures

RE-VISITING IRON AGE IN SOUTH On 20th August 2019 (10:00 am) At AC Conference Hall, Vyloppilly Samskrithi Bhavan Nalanda,

Kerala Council for Historical Research Thiruvananthapuram, www.kchr.ac.in Abstract Burial Burial Cist a of Excavation and Project’ Gazetteer Megalithic ‘Kerala Iron Age socialformationin South Indiabasedonmaterialandtextualsources. bands, tribesandchiefdom-likediverse landscapes. in formations political at lecture looks This had Iron India that Age South appears It Era. the Common of beginning the around populations period. on variouscommunitiesofthis The evidence from literature does pointtothediversityof among the Iron Age population of South India. Settlement evidence and literature throw light the megalithicburial Although types are similar, populationdiversitymust haveemerged India. South across practices burial of nature the and systems belief in differences suggest do typology burial megalithic the in variations vast The exchange. Ocean Indian and domination we getevidenceof script,coinage,politicalformations,Mauryan fortheintroduction context, historic early the In existence. their throughout dynamics historical diverse witnessed traditions megalithic issue. The complex a megalithic been has time-span the vast a Comprehending such span. to belonging burials time this of out fall could burials the of few a although CE, millennium first the to BCE millennium first the from extending mostly burials, megalithic period as well. in theEarlyHistoric One oftheissueshere pertains tothevasttime span ofthe afew for except sufficiently, addressed 1994; attempts (Udaiyaravi Moorthy Gurukkal 2012).vogue were Megalithicburial in practices been not has formation social of question the South India, of parts different in researched and excavated documented, identified, been have Age material culture. in similaritymajor with the Iron numerous megalithicburialsof Although India also in Sri Lanka. They are the mostwidely distributed archaeological remains in South India, South in attributable the Iron to Peninsularperiod arefoundallacross Historic Age andEarly Indiaand Iron of been the earlyhistory a formative Age has phase in South India.Megalithicburials Formation Social Age Iron of theKerala Megalithic Gazetteer Project. findings, radiocarbon dates and discussions derived from the collective research activities as part the chambersand arange of typical Megalithic potterytypes. talk encompassestherecent This inside features like cot/bench with burial cist chambered double a revealed 2019 May of month and Enadimangalam in district. The recent excavation at Enadimangalam in the district Kasasrgod in Kuttikol at undertaken was excavation problem-oriented systematic a and project. As a part of this, salvage excavations were conducted at Nannangadikkunnu in Palakkad of sites than anticipated. Excavation of selected megalithic sites is another major element in the Intensive surveysconducted aspart of the above project incertainareas revealed wider distribution culture. In thisbackdrop, the region demands a thoroughsurvey ofmegalithic sites and remains. materials from the region is a prerequisite for any further serious research into themegalithic destructions. due to or locations of cultural nature of and the integrated database sites An of the of Many research. earlier reported traceable sites are not duethelackofproper to geo-coordinatesand description of parlance/trends current of needs the satisfy to adequate not is data many reportsare very preliminary in nature and someothersare old publicationswhere the remain unpublished, the works of a fewreliable have come up.Most date, publications till only Keralamegalithic researchesin period of long the spite of In human interventions. 1820s fromthe Kerala,sites across are vulnerablewhich tolarge in recentyears because scale destructions of megalithic reported previously and new locate to order in explorations/revisits through remains Kansai University, Japan. The projectintendstoundertake fresh documentationofmegalithic being implemented by theDepartment of Archaeology, of KeralaUniversity with collaboration in funded project by the A of KeralaUniversity titled KeralaMegalithic Project (KMGP)is Gazetteer at Enadimangalam at Dr. V. Selvakumar Dr. AbhayanG.S. Kerala Council for Historical Research (KCHR) is organizing Public Lectures on 20th August 2019 (10:00 am)

at AC Conference Hall Vyloppilly Samskrithi Bhavan

Dr. V. Selvakumar Associate Professor Department of Maritime History and Marine Archaeology Tamil University

will speak on Iron Age Social Formation in South India

Dr. Abhayan G. S. Assistant Professor Department of Archaeology University of Kerala

will speak on ‘Kerala Megalithic Gazetteer Project’ and Excavation of a Cist Burial at Enadimangalam

You are cordially invited

Professor P. Sanal Mohan Director, KCHR Dr. V. Selvakumar Dr. V. Selvakumar is a faculty member of the Department of Maritime History and Marine Archaeology, Tamil University, Thanjavur. He completed his Doctoral and post-Doctoral research from the Deccan College, Pune. He was a faculty member at the Centre for Heritage Studies, Tripunithura, Kerala from 2003 to 2007, and the Department of Epigraphy and Archaeology of Tamil University, Thanjavur, from 2007 to 2017. He was a Nehru Trust for the Indian Collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum (NTICVAM) Visiting Researcher at the Centre for Maritime Archaeology, Southampton University in 2004. With a NTICVAM UK Visiting Fellowship in 2018, he was trained in Ceramic Studies at the UCL and the British Museum. His research interests include archaeology of India, prehistory, heritage management, maritime history and archaeology, archaeological theory, history of science and technology, ceramic studies, Indian Ocean Cultural interactions, and eco-critcism.

Dr. Abhayan G.S.

Dr. Abhayan G.S. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Archaeology, University of Kerala. He completed his Doctoral research from the Deccan College, Pune. He has specialized in zoo archaeology, specifically Ichthyoarchaeology (studies in fish bones). He played a key role in the establishment of a Zoo- archaeology Laboratory at the University of Kerala. He has a keen interest in Megalithic-Iron Age archaeology of Kerala and is currently directing a multidisciplinary archaeological research project titled Kerala Megalithic Gazetteer Project. He has participated in various explorations and excavations works across the country and was a part of archaeological excavations in Kerala at sites such as Vizhinjam, Pattanam, , Arikkadi fort, Kuttikol, Nannangadikkunnu and Enadimangalam. He is also the co-editor of the journal Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology. He has 23 research papers, 6 articles in edited books and an edited book to his credit.

Kerala Council for Historical Research Vyloppilly Samskrithi Bhavan, Nalanda, Thiruvananthapuram- 695003 Phone / Fax – 0471 2310409 , Mob: 94471 37651 E mail: [email protected], www.kchr.ac.in