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About Me

I am a lecturer at Middlesex Community College, Massachusetts (USA) and did my graduate work at Harvard University.  I worked extensively on the materials from the site of Chanhu-daro, Sindh Province, Pakistan, excavated in the 1930s by E.J.H. Mackay.  I am  primarily interested in the inter-relationships between material objects and interpretations of culture, whether in the ancient past or collected within the past centuries and stored in museums today.  My recent articles include, “A Further Note on Rang Mahal Pottery, Interpreting Ceramics, and Dynastic History”, published in Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology (vol. 5, 2018), and “What Makes a Pot Harappan?” In Walking with the Unicorn, Social Organization and Material Culture in Ancient South Asia, edited by D. Frenez et al. (2018 Archaeopress).  I also explore excavation methodologies and their influence on archaeological interpretations and our re-creation of the past.  I recently presented “’The only thing that really matters in our work is the re-creation of the past’; Mortimer Wheeler, Archaeological Method and the Distortion of South Asian Antiquity”, at the The Making of the Humanities VII, University of Amsterdam November 2018, and am currently working on an essay about Dame Kathleen Kenyon, a preeminent field archaeologist who excavated at Jericho, and yet whose contributions to fieldwork methodology as well as her academic accomplishments are routinely downplayed.

Recent Publications

2018  “What Makes a Pot Harappan?”  In Walking with the Unicorn, Social Organization and Material Culture in Ancient South Asia.  Felicitation Volume for the 65^th Birthday Anniversary of Prof. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, edited by D. Frenez, G. Jamison. R. Law, M. Vidale and R.H.Meadow. Archaeopress.

2018  “New Ivory Rods from Mohenjo-daro and an Exploration of this Object Class”. In South Asian Archaeology 2014, edited by Eva Myrdal.  Delhi: Dev Publishers.

2017  “A Further Note on Rang Mahal Pottery, Interpreting Ceramics, and Dynastic History,” Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 5:47-55

2014  “Recently Documented Miniature Vessels from Chanhu-daro, Indus Valley c. 2600-1900 BCE,” Man and Environment XXXIX(2): 42-52.

2013  “Spiraling Interconnectedness: a fresh look at double-spiral headed copper pins in the Indian Subcontinent.  In Connections and Complexity: New Approaches to the Archaeology of South and Central Asia, edited by S. Abraham, P. Gullapalli, T. Raczek and U. Rizvi.  Left Coast Press.

2008  “Foreign-style Objects and the Jhukar Culture at Chanhu-daro.”  In Intercultural Relations between South and Southwest Asia, Studies in Commemoration of E.C.L. During Caspers (1934-1996), edited by E. Olijdam and R.H. Spoor, pp.288-297. BAR International series 1826. Oxford: Archaeopress.

2005  “A New Interpretation of the Stratigraphy at Chanhu-daro and the Jhukar Phase.”  In South Asian Archaeology 2001, edited by C. Jarrige and V. Lefèvre, pp.253-256. Paris:ADPF.

2000  “A Functional Typology of Harappan Period Metal Objects.”  In South Asian Archaeology 1997, edited by M. Taddei and G. DeMarco, pp. 301-320.  Rome: Istituto Italian per l’Africa e l’Oriente (IsIAO) & Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples.

Media Coverage

Social Media

Country Focus

Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, South Asia

Expertise by Geography

India

Expertise by Chronology

Ancient

Expertise by Topic

Material Culture, Rural & Agrarian History, Urban History