In the heart of Delhi, on November 9th, 2023, the illustrious Shiv Nadar University hosted an event featuring Navjot Kour. Ms. Kour disseminated her ongoing work RIVERINE, unveiling the rich archaeological heritage of the plains of Jammu. Her audience consisted of undergraduates, postgraduates and faculty members.
The Genesis of RIVERINE
At the heart of Ms. Kour’s lecture laid the story of her postdoctoral project, RIVERINE. This ambitious endeavour took root in the methodological framework honed through years of research at the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology by the GIAP team. Her presentation therefore highlighted the arduous work of her team and how the methodological guidance provided by their research acted as a beacon for uncovering the vibrant history of the Jammu region. A sizeable portion of the seminar was devoted to the findings of Navjot Kour’s Ph.D. and postdoctoral research. The plains of Jammu, strategically positioned at the crossroads between the towering Himalayan highlands and the sprawling southern plains, have been a conduit for human movement and trade for over a millennium. Navjot Kour’s research is, therefore, a key to unlocking the complex socio-cultural and political identities that have shaped this region over the centuries.
Abstract
Reconstructing past from below and above – Integrating field surveys, geospatial legacy and multisource remote sensing dataset in unravelling the archaeology of the outer plains of Jammu
DATE 9th November, 2023
TIME 12 PM onwards
The outer plains of Jammu, nestled strategically in a crossroad between the Himalayan highlands on the north and vast alluvial plains on the south, have served as a pivotal corridor for the multidirectional movement of people and goods going as back as the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic periods. This process was accentuated during the Early Historic period with the steady usage of Uttarapatha or the Northern highway for commuting purposes. Nonetheless, irrespective of the archaeological importance, the area had not received the proper scholarly attention. In addition, the relatively recent historiography of the area adds up to the crisis. The archaeological investigations in the area commenced from the 1960s onwards and integrated six excavated sites and a range of explored sites. Although, owing to this legacy research, a preliminary chronological sequence of the area could be established, certain Fundamental issues with these investigations hamper the reconstruction of the overall socio-cultural and political dynamics of the outer plains of Jammu.
This talk provides an updated understanding of the area from a vast array of methodological enquiries, which helped to understand its cultural landscape from a fresh perspective. This line of inquiry incorporates the current postdoctoral research and the doctoral research from 2015 to 2019.
Dr. Navjot Kour is a PCI postdoctoral researcher with the project “RIVERINE: Mapping archaeological mounds and long-term socio-ecological transformations in riverine monsoonal plains” (PCI2021-122026-2B), funded by MCIN/AEI /10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR
