Archaeological Sites

"The Bodhisatta was once the youngest of one hundred sons of the king of Benares. He heard from the Pacceka Buddhas, who took their meals in the palace, that he would become king of Takkasilā if he could reach it without falling a prey to the ogresses who waylaid travellers in the forest. Thereupon, he set out with five of his brothers who wished to accompany him. On the way through the forest the five in succession succumbed to the charms of the ogresses, and were devoured. One ogress followed the Bodhisatta right up to the gates of Takkasilā, where the king took her into the palace, paying no heed to the Bodhisatta's warning. The king succumbed to her wiles, and, during the night, the king and all the inhabitants of the palace were eaten by the ogress and her companions. The people, realising the sagacity and strength of will of the Bodhisatta, made him their king."

"Apart from the eponymous Sintashta site, the most mediatized site is Arkaim, discovered in 1987 and excavated by controversial archaeologist Gennady Zdanovich. No doubt in a laudable attempt to save it from being submerged by an artificial lake (he was successful in his efforts), the latter identified the site as a sort of original capital of the “Aryans.”"

"Soon baptized “Swastika City” or “Mandala City” and considered a Stonehenge-like astronomical observatory, the site has attracted the attention of a number of New Age gurus who preside over imagined pagan ceremonies every year on the occasion of the summer solstice; it has also fallen prey to certain far-right nationalist movements. Arkaim is now seen as the “City of the Aryan hierarchy and of racial purity,” the place where “the Old Russian high priest Zoroaster is buried.”"

"As Russian archaeologist Viktor Shnirelman has pertinently pointed out, this discovery, which coincided with the collapse of the Soviet Empire, allowed the “Slavity” of these territories (although they were only relatively recently conquered by the Tsars) to be reaffirmed through their “Aryan-ness.” Naturally, Russian president Vladimir Putin has made a point of visiting these sites."

"And the circle is completed when it is claimed that the Indo-Europeans indeed came from the Far North before settling in the Urals."

"We realize, therefore, that even in these faraway places, whose study requires a certain level of archaeological knowledge, issues that appear to be scientific are, in fact, anything but innocent. Thus, the identification of the Sintashta and Andronovo cultures with the original Indo-Iranians, before their southward migration, is biased from the very start. All the more so since proof of the “Indo-Iranian” character of these cultures is quite weak. The existence of hearths, even in graves, is reminiscent of the fire cult practiced by later Indo-Iranians. But, like sacrifices of horses, bulls, and sheep, it is a practice found in numerous parts of the world."

"Beyond the caricature of Arkaim, the affirmation of ancient cultural ties between Russia and present day Turkish-speaking Central Asia (part of the USSR until 1992) is clearly a major issue regardless of whether the archaeologists involved are aware of it or not."

"This heightened nationalism projects a mythical and majestic Slavic past in which the archaeology of Arkhaim plays no small part."

"Arkhaim has become a center for followers of the occult and Russian supernationalists, a theater of, and for, the absurd and dangerous. It is argued that it was constructed to reproduce a model of the universe; that it was built by King Yima, as described in the Avesta, the sacred book of the Zoroastrians; that it was a temple observatory; that it was the birthplace of Zoroaster, who is buried at Sintashta; that it is the homeland of the ancient Aryans; and that it is the earliest Slavic state. The swastika, which appears on pottery from Arkhaim, is proclaimed a symbol of Aryanism. Visitors come to pray, tap energy from outer space, worship fire, be cured, dance, meditate, and sing."

"The dissolution of the Soviet empire has given rise to a heightened nationalism which, in turn, projects a mythical and majestic Slavic past."

"It is advocated by some that Arkhaim was planned to reproduce a model of the universe; it was built by the legendary King Yima, as described in the Avesta, the sacred book of the Persians and Zoroastrians; it was a temple-observatory comparable to Stonehenge; it was the birthplace of the prophet Zoroaster who at death was buried at Sintashta; it is a model for contemporary society of harmonious relationships between culture and the natural environment; it is the homeland of the ancient Aryans; and the oldest example of a Slavic state. Arkhaim also is identified with Asgard, the secret homeland of the Germanic god Odin; it is the “city of the Aryan hierarchy and racial purity.” The swastika, which appears incised on pottery from Arkhaim, is proclaimed as the symbol of Aryanism by Russian ultranationalists. Russian astrologers have also been attracted to Arkhaim. In 1991 a prominent astrologer, Tamara Globa, during the summer solstice at Arkhaim, announced that the memory of the site was preserved by the Indian Magi and its rediscovery was prophesied by the medieval astrologer Paracelsus."

"Arkhaim attracts up to 15,000 “tourists” during annual holidays, particularly in the spring and summer. They come to pray, tap energy from outer space, worship fire, be cured of disease, dance, meditate, and sing. The thousands of visitors are a ready source of income supporting Dr Zdanovich’s research."

"In a word, the Slavs have been in the southern Urals since time immemorial, they are as primordial as all other modern ethnicities inhabiting the region."

"The wave of nationalism in Russia has given birth to numerous publications of highly dubious merit. Thus, Kto Oni i Otkuda (Who are They and Where From 1998) is a publication of the Library of Ethnography and sanctioned by the Russian Academy of Sciences. In this monograph one can read that the original homeland of the Vedas was in the Arctic and that the language with the closest affinity to Sanskrit is Russian."

"We Slavs consider ourselves to be new arrivals, but that is untrue. Indo-Europeans and Indo-Iranians had been living here [in the southern Urals] since the Stone Age and had been incorporated into the Kazakhs, Bashkirs, and Slavs; such is the common thread linking us all."

"[Shnirelman writes that nationalist concerns in the former U.S.S.R. are creating] an explicitly ethnocentric vision of the past, a glorification of the great ancestors of the given people, who are treated as if they had made the most valuable contribution to the culture of all humanity."

"The archaeology of Arkhaim is playing an important role in the construction of nationalist myths. Today, wholly unwarranted claims are made for Slavs as the original Aryans, for the Slavic language as closest to Sanskrit, for a Slavic-Aryan origin in the Arctic, for the superiority of the Slavic-Aryans, etc."

"Today the site of Arkhaim has become a center for followers of the occult and super-nationalist Russians. It has become a theater of, and for, the absurd and dangerous."

"What is, however, much more significant to note is that here we have the longest sequence of cultures, without any break whatsoever, upto the Early Indus-Sarasvati. In other words, this sequence does not allow any outside agency to come and effect changes in the step-by-step growth of culture. If this is realised clearly, it will not leave any scope for doubt in the indigenous of the origin and growth of the Indus-Sarasvati Civilization; at Mehrgarh from around 4000 B.c. we start getting all those characistic features which went directly into the make-up of the Early Indus sarasvati Civilization."

"Recent excavations at Mehrgarh in Baluchistan have changed the situation,“making plausible the hypothesis that the domestication of plants and animals and the rise of civilization in the Indus Valley was an indigenous cultural process.” The archeological record at the site “begins with the earliest settling by farming peoples, and goes through the middle of the third millennium”; that is, it covers continuously the development from the prepottery Neolithic to the phase immediately preceding the appearance of the Indus Valley cities. A number of scholars feel that this material invalidates the hypothesis of Mesopotamian diffusion. “The new excavations have conclusively disproved the assumption of a sudden appearance of the Indus civilization without any traces of previous development. On the contrary, they have demonstrated that the Harappan civilization should be regarded as a legitimate phase of the evolution of developed village cultures. Urbanization was … prepared by the previous stage of the inner development of village cultures which had reached a fairly high level of development.” Thus the Indus civilization, like those of Mesopotamia and Egypt, was “the result of deep cultural processes originating in the Neolithic,” and was “deeply rooted in local traditions.” In that case, input from outside seems unnecessary; supposedly the Indus culture was just about to sprout into urbanism at the same time lower Mesopotamia was. They happened side by side, at the same time, with no stimulus of one upon the other. Their village geographies, that is, happened to come to maturity at the same time. With the earlier dates for Indus Valley urbanization, and the antecedent preparatory stages shown at Mehrgarh, it now appears that “the growth of urbanization in India took place at virtually the same time as Sumer.”"

"Some other new sites offer partial confirmation of the Mehrgarh implications. In terms of the traditional civilizational requisite of monumentality, for example, at Rehman Dheri “monumental public architecture came in vogue much before the emergence of the mature Indus-Saraswati Civilization, the latter only elaborated the efforts of the former.” “There was a regular fortified settlement with massive mud-brick structures and houses of the Kot Dijians at Harappa [that] long preceded the mature phases of the Indus Saraswati Civilization.”"

"The Mehrgarh data raise serious questions about diffusion as an all-encompassing explanation for major South Asian cultural developments."

"Besides, archaeology has a tendency to suddenly unearth material that completely subverts previously held assumptions. Mehrgarh is the prime example. Prior to its discovery, scholars were inclined to believe that agriculture and urbanization were both diffused from West Asia. Mehrgarh, an agricultural settlement dating back to the seventh millennium B.C.E., dramatically dem- onstrated that "die theoretical models used to interpret the prehistory of Southern Asia must be completely reappraised" (Jarrige and Meadow 1980, 133)."

"Most dramatically, Mehrgarh threw the date for evidence of agriculture back two entire millennia. This clearly underscores the danger of establishing theories predicated on argumentum ex silentio in the archaeological record. Mehrgarh also undermined previous assumptions that urbanization and agriculture were diffused from the centers of civilization to the west of the subcontinent. The site also set the stage for the indigenous development of complex cultural patterns that culminated in the great cities of the Indus Valley: "The origins of the Indus urban society can be traced to the socio-economic interaction systems and settlement patterns of the indigenous village cultures of die alluvial plain and piedmont. More importantly, the factors leading to this transformation ap- pear to be autochthonous and not derived from direct stimulus or diffusion from West or Central Asia" (Kenoyer 199lb, 11)."

"However, Jarrige (1989), the excavator of the site, is less inclined to see these finds as evidence of population movements: "The evidence of a formative period of the cultural complex of Mehrgarh VIII/ Sibri at Nausharo . . . cannot be interpreted in term of invasions from the north-west to the south-east but within the framework of fruitful intercourse at a time when Mohenjo- daro is still an active city" (67)."

"Is it not time to rethink about the entire issue? Could the chalcolithic people of Mehrgarh [seventh millennium B.C.E.], who in the course of time evolved into Bronze Age Harappans, themselves have been the Indo-Aryans? These chalcolithic people had relationship with areas now compromising northern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran and even southern part of central Asia—which area may have been the habitat of the Aryans prior to the composition of the Rgveda. (287)"

"The excavations at Mehrgarh (Jansen et al. 1991; Jarrige et al. 1995) near Sibri, Pakistan, do demonstrate an indigenous development of agricultural food production by people living there as early as the seventh millennium BC. As a cultural occupation, Mehrgarh Period IA dates to the seventh millennium BC period; because of the essential cultural complexity in that occupation stratum, some scholars posit an even earlier period for the cultural innovation there of achieving plant and animal domesticates. Most important was the identification at Mehrgarh of wild representatives of domesticable plants and animals, indicating their use by groups in the area. Mehrgarh’s seventh millennium BC pop- ulation had a plant economy using domesticated wheats and barley, with a high percent (90 percent) of naked six-row barley, a variety which occurs only in a post-domestication context."

"The small size of some goats, a post-domestication characteristic, and intentional use of immature goats within human burials suggests that goats were being herded. By Mehrgarh Period IB, c.6000–5500 BC, fully domesticated sheep, goats, and cattle were the major animals being exploited. In Mehrgarh Period II, 5500–4500 BC, nearly all the faunal remains indicate domestication. After Mehrgarh Period II, some 60 percent of the animals consumed were domesticated cattle. This emphasis on domesticated cattle, though variable, persisted into the second millennium BC, a rare pattern in the ancient Old World where domesticated sheep/goats become the most exploited fauna. Moreover, during the Harappan period, after 2500 BC, groups of specialized cattle pastoralists have been identified in the prehistoric record. More recently, and importantly, cattle mtDNA studies indicate that South Asia is a primary world area where at least one species of cattle, Bos indicus, was domesticated."

"Other important aspects of the Mehrgarh occupation sequence indicate that humans were emphasizing surplus resource production, establishing a precocious and varied craft industry and making use of early “public” architectural units. The crucial point is that the site of Mehrgarh establishes food production technology as an indigenous South Asian, Indus Valley cultural phenomenon. No intruding/ invasive/migrating population coming into the area can be referred to as the source of such cultural innovation, as suggested by Renfrew (1987). The current data (Shaffer 1992) delineates a South Asian prehistoric cultural complexity and urbanization process that develops over a long chronology based on indigenous, but not isolated, cultural innovations. The available archaeological record does not support the explanatory paradigm of a culturally superior, intrusive/invasive Indo- Aryan people as being responsible for the cultural accomplishments documented archaeologically for prehistoric South Asia."

"The Mehrgarh excavations ... changed our understanding about the origins of South Asian food production. Prior to 1980, food production in South Asia was thought to be a Western, intrusive cultural invention. This interpretation is not now acceptable."

"Shortly after Period II at Mehrgarh , domesticated cattle represented 60% of the animals consumed... This is a rare pattern in the ancient Old World where domesticated sheep/goats were the domesticated animals emphasized most. Furthermore, by the Harappan period, after 2500 BCE, specialized cattle pastorialists have been identified... Equally important are recent cattle mtDNA studies indicating that South Asia is one of two regions where cattle were domesticated."

"The main issue here is that the Mehrgarh site demonstrates that food production was an indigenous South Asian phenomenon. Such a cultural invention cannot be attributed to a single area... This evidence delineates a long chronological period for the cultural complexity of the area. The data thus support interpretation of the prehistoric urbanization and complex social organization in South Asia as based on indigenous, but not isolated, cultural developments. A diffusion or migration of a culturally complex ‘Indo-Aryan‘ people into South Asia is not described by the archaeological record."

"A statistical analysis of the orientation of Nabatean sacred monuments demonstrates that astronomical orientations were often part of an elaborated plan and possibly a trace of the astral nature of the Nabataean religion. Petra and other monuments in the ancient Nabataean kingdom have proven to be marvellous laboratories for the interaction between landscape features and astronomical events, showing impressive hierophanies on particular monuments related to cultic times and worships. Among other findings, the famous Ad Deir has shown a fascinating ensemble of light and shadow effects, perhaps connected with the bulk of Nabataean mythology, while from the impressive Urn Tomb, a series of suggestive solstitial and equinoctial alignments emanate which might have lately helped its selection as the cathedral of the city."

"It seems no work of Man’s creative hand, By labour wrought as wavering fancy planned; But from the rock as if by magic grown, Eternal, silent, beautiful, alone! Not virgin-white like that old Doric shrine, Where erst Athena held her rites divine; Not saintly-grey, like many a minster fane, That crowns the hill and consecrates the plain; But rose-red as if the blush of dawn, That first beheld them were not yet withdrawn; The hues of youth upon a brow of woe, Which Man deemed old two thousand years ago. Match me such marvel save in Eastern clime, A rose-red city half as old as time."

"O passing beautiful—in this wild spot Temples, and tombs, and dwellings,—all forgot! One sea of sunlight far around them spread, And skies of sapphire mantling overhead. They seem no work of man’s creative hand, Where Labour wrought as wayward Fancy plann’d; But from the rock as if by magic grown, Eternal—silent—beautiful—alone! Not virgin white—like that old Doric shrine Where once Athena held her rites divine: Not saintly grey—like many a minster fane That crowns the hill, or sanctifies the plain: But rosy-red,—as if the blush of dawn Which first beheld them were not yet withdrawn: The hues of youth upon a brow of woe, Which men call’d old two thousand years ago! Match me such marvel, save in Eastern clime,— A rose-red city—‘half as old as Time!’"

"... archaeologists are discovering that ancient Petra was a sprawling city of lush gardens and pleasant fountains, enormous temples and luxurious Roman-style villas. An ingenious water supply system allowed Petrans not just to drink and bathe, but to grow wheat, cultivate fruit, make wine and stroll in the shade of tall trees. During the centuries just before and after Christ, Petra was the Middle East's premier emporium, a magnet for caravans traveling the roads from Egypt, Arabia and the Levant. And scholars now know that Petra thrived for nearly 1,000 years, far longer than previously suspected."

"Chiseled out of reddish Nubian sandstone, the physical landscape of Petra evokes Nabataean times. Abandoned tombs and stone rubble covering the flanks of the s that were once residences or public buildings, are hidden in the great rift mountains overlooking the Wādī ‘Arabah — they all speak eloquently of the bustling city of Petra that used to be and is now a spectacular architectural wonder, and recently elected one of the ."