Productive Intensification in an Urban Landscape: Survey, Excavation, and Palaeoenvironmental Analysis in the Vijayanagara Metropolitan Region

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Morrison With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Kathleen Morrison and her collaborators will conduct archaeological research at the site of Vijayanagara, located in Southern India. The city of Vijayanagara was the capital of an empire that claimed control over much of peninsular India between the 14th and 16th centuries A.D. It was established in an area that had never been politically central or densely occupied and the rapid expansion of the city in the early years of the 14th century prompted dramatic changes in the organization and scale of production of agriculture and craft goods. In the early 16th century Vijayanagara again underwent a period of expansion in miliary conquest, construction of monumental architecture and also population. This situation provides Dr. Morrison with an excellent opportunity to investigate processes of economic change. Building on five previous seasons of research, her project will examine the structure of production, settlement, transportation and fortification in the region immediately surrounding the city. Three independent lines of evidence, archaeological, historical and botanical will be combined in the analysis of this region. The team will continue their program of systematic intensive surface survey. They will also collect cores for both plant macrofosil and microfossil analysis. Finally historical research based on inscriptions will provide important economic and chronological information. Archaeologists wish to understand how complex societies manage economies with allow large number of people to sustain themselves with relatively simple production techniques. In particular Dr. Morrison is focussing on economic aspects of production and consumption and wishes to understand in detail human environment interactions. She will examine the effect over time of agriculture, craft production and domestic activities. The cores and selected excavations will yield charcoal and plant remains which, through careful analy sis, will provide insight into environmental changes. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will increase our understanding of how complex societies develop and are maintained and will provide a wealth of information on human - environmental interactions.