Site maintenance practices and settlement social organization in Iron Age Karnataka, India: Inferring settlement places and landscape from surface distributions of ceramic assemblage attributes

Beyond culture history at Maski: Land use, settlement and social differences in Neolithic through Medieval South India

“…Walls, constructed passage ways and tiered stone terracing divide discrete living and work spaces from one another in ways similar to those we have documented in the Tungabhadra River region 100 km to the south (Bauer, 2010(Bauer, , 2014(Bauer, , 2015Johansen, 2010Johansen, , 2011. The most dramatic expression of this pattern is located at the south end of the Durgada Gudda outcrop where MARP-82 sits perched on the highest peak of the hill, overlooking the larger and more expansive MARP-30 spread across a long saddle below (Fig.…”

Early ironworking in Iron Age South India: New evidence for the social organization of production from northern Karnataka

“…Northern Karnataka is the only region in South India where detailed studies of Iron Age settlements have been conducted (Bauer in press;Johansen 2010Johansen , 2011Sinopoli 2009). Settlements here are located on natural terraces on large granite hills, many of which display a concern for boundary maintenance and defense; access was controlled by stone barrier walls and formalized entryways.…”

“…Settlements here are located on natural terraces on large granite hills, many of which display a concern for boundary maintenance and defense; access was controlled by stone barrier walls and formalized entryways. The internal organization of the settlements appears to have been designed to spatially and symbolically distinguish the residential places of socially distinct groups (Bauer in press;Johansen 2010Johansen , 2011. This was accomplished by the construction of discrete residential zones with elevated and often tiered stone and earth terraces (Johansen 2011).…”

“…Here this problem is approached with an analysis of archaeological evidence for iron production within a 100 sq km study area in the Bellary and Koppal districts of the South Indian state of Karnataka, an area currently under investigation by the Early Historic Landscapes of the Tungabhadra Corridor (EHLTC) research project Bauer 2007;Johansen 2009Johansen , 2010Johansen , 2011Morrison et al in press a, in press b;Sinopoli 2009Sinopoli , 2010. More than a decade of systematic pedestrian survey, intensive surface collection, site mapping, excavation, and artifact analyses has produced a significant body of new data on iron production.…”

“…Changes in material culture during the transition from the Neolithic period (2700-1200 B.C. ) to the Iron Age included the construction of various stone features referred to as megaliths that were used for commemorative and memorial practices, and the production of new slipped and polished ceramic wares and forms (including Black-and-Red Ware), as well as iron (and later steel) tools (e.g., sickles, hoes, plowshares, bill-hooks, celts, axes, horse bits, stirrups), weapons (e.g., spears, arrowheads, axes, knives, daggers, swords, tridents), and hardware (especially nails and wire) (Banerjee 1965;Bauer 2011;Bauer et al 2007;Brubaker 2001;Deo 1985;Gururaja Rao 1972;Johansen 2010;Moorti 1994;Sinopoli 2009;Sinopoli et al 2009;Sundara 1975). Once thought to be the result of punctuated and intrusive processes, the transition from the Neolithic period to the Iron Age is generally viewed today as a gradual and localized development of sociopolitical differences and inequalities originating with the relatively egalitarian Neolithic agropastoral communities of South India (Brubaker 2001;Chakrabarti 1988;Moorti 1994).…”