“The Transformation and Legacy of the Indus Civilization"

Friday, March 12, 2010 at 8 PM in Miller Room 114

Lecture by Prof. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer

Robert J. Braidwood Lecture** of the Archaeological Institute of America for the
New Orleans Society and Loyola University Classical Studies program

This illustrated lecture presents the most recent discoveries of the Indus Valley Civilization in Pakistan and western India. A special focus will be on the 2007 discoveries at the sites of Harappa and Ganweriwala, Pakistan, and 2008-09 excavations in India, which have provided new evidence on the origins of writing and urbanism in the Indus Valley. Important topics will include the emergence of village cultures and eventually towns (3700-2600 BC), and the urban expansion of the Indus or Harappan Period (2600-1900 BC), and the transformation of the Indus cities (1900-1000 BC).
New discoveries on the development of writing, seals, and the use of standardized stone weights will be presented along with a discussion on Indus art, symbol and technology as well as the enigmatic undeciphered Indus script. The decline and reorganization of the Indus cities (1900-1300 BC) will also be discussed along with the gradual emergence of Indo-Aryan cultures in the northern subcontinent. Throughout the presentation the important contributions of the Indus culture to later civilizations in South Asia and other world regions will be highlighted.
** Robert Braidwood is among the most distinguished of archaeologists. His work inspires not only his former students, but all who take a serious interest in the human past. Therefore, the Archaeological Institute of America has established a special lectureship in Braidwood’s honor. The Robert J. Braidwood Lecture is given annually at a local chapter of the AIA. The location changes from year to year.
Braidwood’s extraordinary career at the University of Chicago began with his research in the Amuq during the early twentieth century. His fieldwork in Iraq and Turkey has been of fundamental importance in elucidating the course of the Neolithic revolution. The list of sites he has excavated include Tell Judaideh, Tell Fakhariyah, Jarmo, Matarrah, Tepe Asiab, Tepe Sarab, Çayönü, and others. He was a pioneer in interdisciplinary research, taking a team of specialists from the natural sciences with him into the field as early as 1951. Braidwood published the results of his work in numerous volumes for scholars and the general public. He won the AIA’s Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement in 1971.