Historical Archaeology in the Indian Ocean
Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2020
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Historical Archaeology in the Indian Ocean," at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.
Historical archaeologists have contributed to our understanding of Atlantic colonial history through studying monumental architecture and material culture from everyday life. Despite the archaeology of the recent past being relatively new to the Indian Ocean region, scholars have already noted the need for engaging novel paradigms through material, landscape, and maritime studies based on historical and cultural contexts of the region. Long standing trade-networks between Africa, South Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Australia were defining features of the Indian Ocean for centuries before European imperial expansion. Papers in this session utilize a host of disciplinary approaches to examine labor, race, ethnicity, diaspora, human-environment relationships, over the past five hundred years. In drawing together regional papers, this session moves towards the establishment of comparative and connected spatial patterns, artifact typologies, and environmental dynamics. The session as a whole demonstrates the potential contributions research in the IOW can make to historical archaeology broadly.
Other Keywords
Colonialism •
Indian Ocean •
Migration •
Environment •
Oral History •
Plantation •
Religion •
Art History •
Urbanism •
Slavery
Temporal Keywords
Medieval •
Colonial Period •
Post-medieval •
18th-19th century •
17-19th Century •
Historical Archaeology •
thirteenth century •
1510 - 2019 •
15th through 17th Centuries •
2000 BP to Present
Geographic Keywords
Coahuila (State / Territory) •
New Mexico (State / Territory) •
Oklahoma (State / Territory) •
Arizona (State / Territory) •
Texas (State / Territory) •
Sonora (State / Territory) •
United States of America (Country) •
Chihuahua (State / Territory) •
Nuevo Leon (State / Territory) •
Delaware (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)
- Documents (9)
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Approaching Past, Present, and Future Urbansims in Goa, India (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology in the Indian Ocean" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. What do we know of early modern colonial urbanisms in South Asia? Archival sources provide meta-narratives of the “rise and fall” of colonial outposts. This paper revisits these histories and the heritage management practices they engender. In Velha Goa, the former capital of the Portuguese eastern empire, the story of the city’s...
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Between Slavery and Indenture: Spatial practices, Materiality, and the Memory of Coercion on Sugar Plantations in Mauritius (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology in the Indian Ocean" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The archaeology of Trianon and Bras d’Eau sugar estates in Mauritius are case studies of the multi-vocal practices – both at the household and regional scale – that shaped landscapes around the plantation industry in the Indian Ocean. In this paper we examine material evidence and archival documentation that reveals a long process...
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The Faith Adaptations in Colonial Mauritius (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology in the Indian Ocean" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Due to its colonial legacy, Mauritius could serve as a laboratory for the present-day globalization in almost every aspect of human activity. Most noticeable and distinguishable is the religious element. Corresponding to their homeland, the colonizers and colonists of Mauritius were followers of Christianity, African traditional...
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The Maqamat Ship: Context and Comparison of the Iconic Arab Manuscript Painting (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology in the Indian Ocean" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The iconic ship illustration in the thirteenth-century Paris 'Schefer' Maqamat manuscript is one of the most significant individual images used in maritime archaeology. This painting was the primary iconographic source for interpretations of the Belitung wreck and for the design and construction of two full-sized replica ships, and...
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Slavery, Resistance, and Memory -The Case of Mauritius. (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology in the Indian Ocean" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The materiality of slavery has received much attention over recent decades. Unequivocally focused on the Atlantic experience, comparative models from the Indian Ocean serve to enrich our understanding of slavery on a global scale. The body of literature on slave artefacts, mortuary practices, and diet highlight the nuances and...
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Social and Economic Contexts of the Coromandel Coast of South India in the Colonial Period and the Indian Diaspora Formation (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology in the Indian Ocean" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Coromandel coast in South India, which was in the continuous focus of the European maritime powers, had a dynamic role in the political and commercial activities of the Indian Ocean region from the 16th to early 20th centuries. This paper focuses on the socio-economic contexts in areas surrounding Dutch, Danish, English and...
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Stone Walls for Portuguese Pests: Swahili Landscape Responses to European Incursion on Zanzibar Island, Tanzania (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology in the Indian Ocean" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Starting in the late fifteenth century, Iberian sailors plied deeply into Atlantic and Indian Ocean networks of exchange. They brought with them notions of Western European cities and city life. In turn, they built trading enclaves that referenced the plans, designs, and aesthetics of European urban spaces. This paper summarizes new...
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Tantaran’ny Velondriake (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology in the Indian Ocean" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In this paper we describe a collaboration between environmental archaeologists and Vezo historians from the Velondriake region of southwest Madagascar. The project aims to integrate archaeological data from surveys and excavations and oral histories pertaining to Vezo livelihoods, settlements and migrations, in order to reconstruct...
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When did Indian Ocean transform into a trade-lake? Contextualising the archaeological evidence from Pattanam, Kerala, India in the maritime interfaces of the Old World. (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology in the Indian Ocean" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Indian Ocean with its mighty vastness and probably the largest number of diverse cultures settled across its littoral from South Africa to South China played a defining role in the first transcontinental early historic interfaces. The confluence of the three regional trade systems, based on silk, spices and aroma transformed the...