Silences and Mentions in the Historical Archaeology of the Indian Ocean: Themes for a New Research Agenda

Summary

Research on the archaeology of the last five hundred years around the Indian Ocean rim is distinctly patchy. This contrasts with the body of material now available concerning earlier periods, and especially concerning the ear between ca. 500 BCE and 1500 CE. Where research has been undertaken this has tended to have had either a fairly local or at best limited regional focus. This has meant that many of the interconnections between different areas of the Indian Ocean have been left unexplored. It has also meant that the expansion of European powers into the Indian Ocean from ca. 1500 CE has been left under theorised. Drawing on a diverse range of perspectives, including multi-sited ethnography, postcolonial studies and maritime historical ecology, this paper reviews some of the reasons behind existing ‘silences’ and ‘mentions’ in the historical archaeology of the Indian Ocean and outlines possible direction for future research.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Archaeologies of Colonialism and Everyday Life in the Indian Ocean World

Keywords

Spatial Coverage