IT DEALS WITH THE POSSIBLE METHODS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY AND EXCAVATION IN HILLY REGION

1. Archaeological Methodologies
A Comprehensive Study Of Archaeological Methods
Suitable In Hill Region

2. Why Archaeology?
 It corroborates literary sources.
 Talks about contemporary situations.
 Very confined interpretations.
 Meteorological changes could be identified.
 Provides plenty of data &facts regarding nature, environment and
culture.
 Depicts society and common people rather than elite class.
 99.60% period of human evolution depends upon it.

3. Limitations.
 Climate destructs or change the real texture of evidences.
 Expensive, labour seeking & time consuming.
 Destructive, we cannot excavate same site twice.
 Huge scarcity of interdisciplinary experts.
 Technological applications has big room for tolerances and errors.
 We could not find which is not there.(Perishable items)
 Political boundary and conflicts create hurdles.
 Discoveries are still being made accidently. SANAULI(U.P.) 2005

4. Methods to discover archaeological sites.
DESKTOP SURVEY
 Study of Maps, historical documents, previous
archaeological records.
 Photograph, paintings, inscriptions.
 Books, diaries, land ownership, travelogues etc.
 Study of Puranas and Epics could assist us to locate the
site.

5. SURFACE SURVEYS
 Visual survey mostly done on foot.
 Systematic and unsystematic type.
 Cheap and best method.
 Suitable for cultivable land.
 Applicable in lower Himalayan range.

6. GEO CHEMICAL SURVEY
 To locate habitation on the basis of concentration of any
particular element or compound in soil. Nitrogen ,
phosphate, isotopes of oxygen, carbon, sulphur.
 Phosphate analysis most popular.
 Higher Nitrogen concertation claims animal habitation
( Inamgaon= chalcolithic).
 Not applicable in upper valley region. ( Reagents doesn’t
reacts below 15ºC)
 Determination of layer of soil sampling is the biggest
challenge.

7. GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS
It Allows To Detect Invisible
Features*. Electrical Resistivity
Method, Magneto-metry (measuring
pattern of magnetism in the soil
e.g. river bed, cremation, burning
digging),Ground Penetrating Radar
Methods(upto 2.5 mtr. ) Are Some
Most Useful Methods In Hilly Region.
*Maximum Revelation Without Excavation

8. ARIEAL SURVEYS
 Best method for upper Himalayan
range
 Photograph taken at oblique angle.
 Photograph should be taken when
sun is down
 Application of drone is increasing.

9. Archaeological techniques.
 Horizontal And Vertical Excavations.
 Faunal Analysis (animal bones) And
Taphonomy(war, genocide).
 Lithic Analysis(trade &migration).
 Palaeoethnobotony(anaerobic, kitchen).
 Residue Techniques (biochemical
technique- pottery, milk).
 Petrography ( constitution of rock,
minerals in clay, pot).
 Human Osteoarchaeology (disease,
forensic,bones& tissues).
 Garbage Archaeology.

10. UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGY
 Similar techniques but tools are
different . SONAR
 Very early stage in Asia
 Anaerobic environment keeps
perishable material preserved.
 Regular use in ocean region
 Parashar lake, kamrunag lake, saat taal
& bheem taal.
 Movement of Tehla in parashar lake
Either geo magnetic or celestial

11. ENVIRONMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY
 Part of paleoecology.
 Synergy and symbiosis between animal and
plant.
 Lower and mid Himalaya has extreme floral
diversity.
 Land use, food production, tool use,
occupation pattern
 Largely depends upon the other streams e.g.
Archaeobotony,
Zooarchaeology,
Geoarchaeology,
Bio-Archaeology,
Climatology,
Landscape archaeology.

12. DATING METHODS
RADIO CARBON DATINGS
 Willard Libby in 1946.
 C-14 - half life- 5730 years
 1% decay- 83 years.
 It measures time organism removed from the
carbon exchange reservoir.
 it determines when organism stopped exchanging
carbon.
 Error range and tolerance is very high.

13. RADIO CARBON CALIBRATION
 Carbon ratio doesn’t remains same
throughout the space and time
 Practically there is a pattern of
fluctuation known as “ wiggles”.
 6000 radio carbon year= 6900 calendar
years.
 Wiggles is most complex issue of the
archaeological science.
 Calibration done by dendrochronology.
 University of Helsinki+ MIT is trying to
solve the issue of wiggle.

14. ACCELERATOR MASS SPECTROMETER
 Used to measure the time of perishable
and nearly complete decayed organisms.
 Principle-when an electrically charged
particle travels through a magnetic field,
it follows a curved path and the amount
of curvature is related to the mass of the
particle ( 8 million volts).
 Makes possible to directly date small
samples, including seeds and residues.
 Sample can be dated quickly.

15. DENDROCHRONOLOGY
Tree Ring Dating
 To determine the antiqueness of any timber or
wooden architecture.
 Absolute precision yet not exact science.
 Usually each year, the tree add on single ring of
new wood immediately under the bark (OAK
TREE =1YEAR, PINES=0-2YEARS).
 The ring pattern of tree has record of the
fluctuating climate of the past (no rain,heavy
rain).
 Death of tree and architecture could have
different period.
 batter condition=more growth=thicker ring.
 Hit helps in calibrating radiocarbon dating.
 Ants destroy the ring structure.

16. LUMINESCENE DATING
Used to measure the amount of light
emitted from energy stored in rock. All
matter has special type of atomic
arrangement BCC, FCC, Hexagonal
lattice crystals. Best method to study
the later age of human evolution.
Thermoluminescence-To date flint
tools.
electron spin range- To date animal
teeth.
Optically stimulated luminescence-To
date quartz grains in sediments.
POTASSIUM- ARGON DATING
K-40 is a radioactive isotope
commonly found in mica , clays,
minerals etc.
Half life- 1.248× 109 years.
In 2013 this method was used by
mars curiosity rover (NASA) to date a
rock on the mars.
Recently Argon-Argon method is
promoted to achieve higher
precision.

17. “everything is fleeting; either love or stone tools”- Unknown
“Backpack your shoes because nothing lasts forever.”