Project presentation
On the other side of the Indus River, at the periphery of a millenary civilisation, lies Gujarat, birth place of exceptional people and one of the most industrialised region of India. Due to its geographical situation, Gujarat has been (and still is) a crossroads of cultures, with a very important archaeological heritage.
A team of the Institució Milà i Fontanals (IMF-CSIC – Barcelona), led by Marco Madella, works in North Gujarat since 2007, trying to unravel how human populations lived thousands of years ago. Over the next few weeks, they are going to excavate the archaeological site of Vaharvo Timbo, where hunter-gatherers lived 9,000 years ago.
If you will join us in this adventure, you will discover fascinating temples, everlasting traditions, communities of nomadic pastoralist and above all a world full of aromas and colours.
Photos
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Drinks stand
Drinks stand in Vadodara (Gujarat, India). Image by J. L. Mateos.
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Species stand
Species stand in Old Delhi. Image by Núria G. Tuset.
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Rock formation
Rock formation at the Aravalli Hills.
Photo by C. Lancelotti
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Part of a human skull
A pot and the occipital part of a human skull at Vaharvo Timbo.
Photo by F. C. Conesa.
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Videos
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Project update
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Message 20: The adventure is over!
30/12/2011
At last! We head home! Our suitcases are full of samples (and gifts, that we mustn’t forget!). It has been a perfect archaeological campaign; one full month in the field with a memorable ending in the Kachchh.
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Message 19: Sooner or later everything comes to an end
22/12/2011
The 2011 NoGAP expedition reaches its end. After a month in India and a lot of work it is time to go back home… or isn’t it?
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Message 18: Unravelling the mystery
18/12/2011
Digging up a burial is not an easy task, but with a little patience and a lot of skill there are many things that we can discover.
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Message 17: An update from the team
15/12/2011
Weeks go by and it is time to check how our expedition is going. Many things happened… some of them really unexpected!
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Message 16: In my twenties and in India
12/12/2011
Pep is the youngest member of our expedition, and we would like to know his opinion about India and our work in Gujarat.
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Message 15: Looking for ancient plants: how do we build a reference collection?
09/12/2011
When we look at plant remains from archaeological excavations the main task is to be able to identify what we are looking at. In order to do this we need some reference material. We can find many books that help us identifying plants but it is much more effective (and fun) to go and build our own reference collection.
In the next few days, we are going to the Aravalli Hills and the Little Rann of Kachchh to look for locations where original (pre industrial times) vegetation might still be present.
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Message 14: Walking with shepherds and chatting with peasants
07/12/2011
In our project we are studying the transition from hunter-gathering to agro-pastoralism. To do so, we are investigating how Gujarat people used and managed the landscape and how environmental conditions could have affected or conditioned their decision and behaviour.
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Message 13: Gujarat from the space: reconstructing a changing landscape
05/12/2011
Satellites? Google Earth? Aerial imagery is widely used in archaeological research. Here in Gujarat we use it for understanding landscape transformations and to find dunes and palaeolakes!
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Message 12: Holocene Hunter-gatherers environment at Vaharvo Timbo
02/12/2011
The beginning of the Holocene some 12,000 years ago coincides with the slow but steady disappearance of hunter-gatherer communities worldwide. These a...I like this (2) Comments (0)Research diary -
Message 11: Traditional societies in modern India
30/11/2011
Mumbai, the most prosperous cinema industry worldwide (yes! more than Hollywood!); Bangalore, providing hardware for most of the computers we use; Jay...I like this (1)Research diary
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