The state of theocracy: defining an early medieval hinterland in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The ancient Sri Lankan city of Anuradhapura is currently the subject of one of the world's largest and most intensive archaeological research projects. Having traced its growth from an Iron Age village to a medieval city, the research team now moves to the task of modelling the surrounding landscape. Three seasons of fieldwork have located numerous sites of which the most prominent in the urban period are monasteries. Here is a clue about how the early urban hinterland was managed which has implications well beyond Sri Lanka.

The dry tank: development and disuse of water management infrastructure in the Anuradhapura hinterland, Sri Lanka

“…These aspects include testing working hypotheses that the creation of irrigated landscapes with artificial reservoirs in South Asia was initiated and driven by Buddhist introduction (Coningham, et al, 2007, Shaw, et al, 2007 and at the time of introduction were an entirely new system of land resource management. We consider hypotheses that water management infrastructure development had a role beyond food production, as symbolic construction activities (Mosse, 2005, Scarborough, 2003.…”

“…These studies suggest that beginning ca. 400 BC, Anuradhapura emerged as an increasingly populous urban area to become the island's secular capital and Buddhist religious centre, and that hinterland monasteries and a transient worker group ensured the flow of staple resources to the urban population (Coningham et al, 2007). Resilient and expanding throughout the first millennium AD, it is generally recognised from historical sources that Anuradhapura and its hinterland were abandoned and the population dispersed ca.…”

A ‘Reflexive’ Multi-Stage Survey Methodology for Historical Landscape Research in Central India:Field-Walking, Local Knowledge, and Satellite Imagery as Archaeological Site Prospection and Mapping Tools in the Sanchi Survey Project

“…Ironically therefore, despite using landscape-oriented methods, such studies remain rooted in a 'site-based' modality, just as early extensive surveys in Europe represented changes in 'techniques and methods rather than in theory and metaphysics' 16 . Further, by excluding non-settlement data from the focus of enquiry, religio-ideological and political based models of Early Historic state-formation and urbanization in the Ganga valley 63 lack empirical corroboration as provided elsewhere by more integrated landscape studies that help challenge traditional centralized models of state 1,3,44 .…”

“…Although the wider manifestation of these patterns beyond the spatially restricted study area thus remains unknown, the resulting dataset is important for assessing text-driven theories regarding modes of interaction between monastic and lay populations, and offers useful parallels to similar, although more broadly dispersed patterns documented during the SSP [1][2][3]40,41 . In recent years, other similar projects focusing on historical socio-economic, agrarian and religious landscape dynamics have proliferated, from those dealing with Buddhist contexts 6,[42][43][44][45][46] , to those more aligned with later Hindu traditions [47][48][49] .…”

At the equator: making sense of magnetometer data

“…However, when surveys are undertaken closer to the magnetic equator the discrepancies in the data collected with diff erent instruments and in various confi gurations create challenges for the overall archaeological interpretation of results. As part of the Anuradhapura Hinterland Project in Sri Lanka (the Upper Malwatu Oya Exploration Project, UMOEP (Coningham et al, 2007) three seasons of magnetometer surveys were undertaken; two using fl uxgate gradiometers and one with Caesium magnetometers in dualsensor confi guration.…”