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Chalcolithic and modern potting at Gilund, Rajasthan: a cautionary tale

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Amrita Sarkar
Amrita Sarkar*
Affiliation:
Deccan College Postgraduate & Research Institute (Deemed University), Pune 411006, India (Email: amritjoy@gmail.com)
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Extract

By an interesting coincidence the village of Gilund in Rajasthan, north-west India was host to an important Chalcolithic settlement of the early third millennium BC and to some of the last indigenous potters still working in the twenty-first century AD. The author shows how her study of the prehistoric potters was enhanced by what she learnt from their modern successors, pointing out that she was only just in time. These potters will be the last to practice and in this respect ethnoarchaeology is itself under threat.

Keywords

IndiaRajasthanChalcolithicthird millennium BCceramicspotteryethnoarchaeology
Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 85 , Issue 329 , September 2011 , pp. 994 - 1007
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2011

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