Phytoliths and lithics: an alliance of convenience? Performing first comprehensive residue analysis for the artefacts of the Indus Civilisation

Mostra el registre complet Registre parcial de l'ítem

  • dc.contributor.author Gadekar, Charusmita
  • dc.contributor.author García-Granero, Juan José
  • dc.contributor.author Madella, Marco
  • dc.contributor.author Lancelotti, Carla
  • dc.contributor.author Veesar, Ghulam Mohiuddin
  • dc.contributor.author Abro, Tasleem Alam
  • dc.contributor.author Chandio, Muhammad Amin
  • dc.contributor.author Zurro, Debora
  • dc.date.accessioned 2024-05-02T05:51:03Z
  • dc.date.available 2024-05-02T05:51:03Z
  • dc.date.issued 2023
  • dc.description.abstract Lithic tools are generally considered ́secondary artefactś when it comes to the Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Harappan Civilisation. However, they were utilized for an array of different functions and formed part of day-to-day life of people. Until now, scholars have worked exhaustively to understand the technology behind manufacturing these tools, raw material acquisition patterns and their typological distributions throughout the IVC and beyond. Analyses on the functional aspects of these tools are, unfortunately, still lacking. This study aims to understand the function of lithic tools related with plant use by using phytolith analysis. Stone tools were collected from the sites of Bhando Qubo and Taloor Jee Bhitt, situated in Sindh, Pakistan, which have been recently excavated and are culturally affiliated with the Mature Harappan period (c. 2600–1900 BCE). The residues extracted from the tool edges show the presence of plant remains belonging mostly to grass leaves and stems, suggesting that they were used for cutting grasses, some possibly for harvesting winter cereals or millets. The striking differences observed in the phytolith assemblages from the two studied sites suggest differences in either the use of the analysed tools or in the underlining agricultural practices. This study is a first of its kind in South Asia and shows the potential of phytolith analysis to explore the use of lithic tools throughout the IVC.
  • dc.description.sponsorship This work is part of the ‘Phytolith Analysis and Stone Tools: A socio-ecological analysis of stone tool assemblages of North-Western South Asia’ (PAST) project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 891238 and the Modeling the Agricultural Origins and Urbanism in South Asia (ModAgro) project, funded by the Palarq Foundation, the Ministry of Culture & Sport and the Ministry of Science & Innovation (PID2021-127756NB-I00), Government of Spain; JJGG acknowledges grant No. IJC2018-035161-I, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, and grant No. RYC2021-033891-I, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the European Union «NextGenerationEU»/PRTR.
  • dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
  • dc.identifier.citation Gadekar C, García-Granero JJ, Madella M, Lancelotti C, Veesar GM, Abro TA, Chandio MA, Zurro D. Phytoliths and lithics: an alliance of convenience? Performing first comprehensive residue analysis for the artefacts of the Indus Civilisation. J Archaeol Sci Rep. 2023;52:104254. DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.104254
  • dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.104254
  • dc.identifier.issn 2352-409X
  • dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/59968
  • dc.language.iso eng
  • dc.publisher Elsevier
  • dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/891238
  • dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/3PE/PID2021-127756NB-I00
  • dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/3PE/RYC2021-033891
  • dc.rights © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0/).
  • dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
  • dc.rights.uri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
  • dc.subject.keyword Indus Valley Civilisation
  • dc.subject.keyword Lithic tools
  • dc.subject.keyword Phytoliths
  • dc.subject.keyword Residue analysis
  • dc.subject.keyword South Asia
  • dc.title Phytoliths and lithics: an alliance of convenience? Performing first comprehensive residue analysis for the artefacts of the Indus Civilisation
  • dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
  • dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Col·leccions

Articles (Departament d'Humanitats)
Documents OpenAIRE (Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe)