Archaeology as Practiced in Kashmir – A Critique

Abstract

This paper discusses the framework of archaeological works carried out to understand extant archaeological material culture and settlement patterns in Kashmir.  Here in this paper, I highlight site-specific excavations and explorations which, by targeting only single aspects of archaeology (such as exposing and documenting structures), have failed in their real purpose of unravelling the different human activities associated with sites/structures.  The individual sites explored or excavated in Kashmir were always regarded as representing a culture in itself, with traditional interpretations given in a cultural historic perspective.  Through these excavations or explorations, disconnected information about site-types, their associated material culture, landscape features and chronology has been built up and followed in Kashmir.  There are only a handful of sites that were excavated or explored with the purpose of studying issues of continuity or discontinuity among different periods, and it is through analysis of these sites that rudimentary information about settlement types becomes available and hence the topic of the current paper.