The Forbidden Archeologist by Cremo Michael A

Author:Cremo, Michael A. [Cremo, Michael A.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Life Sciences, Ancient, Archaeology - Philosophy, Social Science, Archaeology - Political aspects, Paleontology, Michael A. - Travel, Science, Evolution, Anthropology, Civilization, Human evolution, Cremo, Prehistoric, Archaeology - Social aspects, Archaeology, Excavations (Archaeology)
ISBN: 9780892133376
Publisher: Torchlight Publishing Inc
Published: 2011-03-10T16:00:00+00:00

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Folk Archeological Traditions in India

On July 2, 2005, I flew overnight from Los Angeles to London’s Gatwick airport. I took a Thameslink train from Gatwick to the Thameslink Kings Cross railway station. From there I walked a short ways up Pentonville Road to Dinwiddy House, where I stayed while attending a meeting of the European Association of South Asian Archaeologists. The meeting, at which I presented a paper, was held in the British Museum, from July 4 to July 8.

The conference was attended by a few hundred archeologists and art historians from Europe, India, and other parts of the world. Among the archeologists from India was one with whom I have been working, trying to get permission from the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) to conduct some test excavations at the Shri Rangam temple in South India. I would like to show that the temple is at least five thousand years old. However, the ASI is not inclined to give permission for doing such work on the temple grounds proper. The archeologist informed me that we probably could get permission to do such work outside the temple compound. That might work, if we could locate buried older foundations or other buried structures connected with the temple and surrounding settlement in ancient times.

On the morning of July 7, shortly before nine o’clock, I walked out of Dinwiddy House. I thought about taking the Underground from the Kings Cross station to Russell Square, the stop nearest the British Museum. But I decided it would be better to walk, so that I could chant the Hare Krishna mantra on my meditation beads. A young Indian archeologist attending the conference and also staying in Dinwiddy House actually did go down into the King’s Cross underground station and was on the train that was bombed shortly after nine o’clock. She later told how she and the other survivors had to climb out of the damaged car over dead bodies and then walk through the tunnel to get back to safety.

At the conference, I heard only a very brief and low key announcement about the attacks. The archeologists kept giving their papers, while outside the city was coming to a halt. It was only after the conference, when I tried to walk home and found my route blocked with police, that I learned the true extent of what had happened.

The next day, it was my turn to read my paper, the title of which was “Excavating the Eternal: Folk Archeological Traditions in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India.” Histories of Indian archaeology typically begin with observations by sixteenth-century

European travelers, such as Pietro de Valle. In the introduction to his History of Indian Archaeology from the Beginning to 1947, D. Chakrabarti says, “Without doubt these records constitute the first group of archaeological writings on India.” But Indian sacred

writings reveal a parallel indigenous archaeological tradition, involving the excavation of lost artifacts, deities, temples, and sacred sites. I will give one example each from ancient, medieval, and modern India.

According to

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