This project aims to advance our knowledge on the various aspects of plant exploitation and use in the past, starting from the transition to cultivation to gender related aspects of labour division, through the development of a holistic methodology to study lithic tools, one of the most common artifacts from archaeological contexts.
Plants are a major economic resource for most societies, yet plant related activities are often underrepresented in the archaeological record. Understanding long-term management of plant resources is a necessary condition required to identify the emergence of agricultural practices and modification of natural landscapes. This project, PAST, approaches these issues through the study of one of the most abundant archaeological artefacts: lithic tools. The approach is based on designing and applying a holistic methodology for the study of microliths and blade implements, which will be tested on a case-study. The methodology should provide sound interpretations of the socio-ecological significance of the changing dynamics of Chalcolithic communities of north-western South Asia (4th to 2nd millennium BCE) and have the potential to be applied to archaeological contexts within and outside South Asia.
Lithic production has always been seen as a male activity. This encourages androcentrism within the discipline which in turn is reproduced in narratives about human history. PAST explores the gender association of stone tools under investigation (which has never been attempted before in South Asia). It will highlight issues related to gender labour division and the exploitation of technologies.
Lithic assemblages form an important group of material culture of Mesolithic-Chalcolithic periods of the Indian subcontinent, which have been inadequately studied in existing work. Typo-technological analyses are generally conducted for stone tool assemblages but systematic archaeological investigations to understand the functional aspects have rarely been done.
Finally, from a methodological point of view, the recovery of micro-botanical remains from tool edges will enhance our understanding, when compared with current information from macro-remains and other proxies, about plant collection and consumption in the prehistory of Asia. The project will supply new data and a framework that can be used in other areas, thus advancing archaeological research.
