archaeology

A terra cotta sculpture of Hanuman in India. The reddish colour is due to iron oxide in the source clay. Clays with low iron content can result in paler colours on firing, ranging from white to yellow.

Terra cotta (Latin: "baked earth") is a waterproof ceramic. Its uses include vessels, water & waste water pipes and surface embellishment in building construction. The term is also used to refer to items made out of this material and to its natural, brownish orange color.

Production and properties

An appropriate refined clay "mud" is partially dried and cast, molded, or hand worked into the desired shape. After further thorough drying it is placed in a kiln, or atop combustable material in a pit, and then fired. After pit firing the hot ware is covered with sand to cool, and after kiln firing the kiln is slowly cooled. When unglased, the material will not be waterproof, but it is suitable for in-ground use to carry pressurized water (an archaic use), for garden ware, and sculpture or building decoration in tropical environments, and for oil containers, oil lamps, or ovens. Most other uses such as for table ware, sanitary piping, or building decoration in freezing environments require that the material be glazed. Terra cotta, if uncracked, will ring if lightly struck, but not as brightly as will ware fired at higher temperature, which is called stoneware. The fired material is relatively weak compared to stoneware. Owing to the low firing temperatures it is possible to use lead-containging glases, which although once widely used are now recognized as producing both health and environmental hazzards. (more…)

Locating Domains of Devotion, Patronage and Power in the Eleventh Century

by MICHAEL WILLIS

Bijamandal and Bhojpur

The relative importance of Bhilsa vis à vis Udayagiri in post-Gupta times is indicated by the massive temple ruin known as the Bijamandal (Fig. 9). This is not dated but an inscription on one of the pillars belongs to the time of king Naravarman (c. 1093-1134). The inscription gives a short hymn in praise of the goddess Caccika.32 The eulogy, together with sculptures recovered from the debris piled against the lower mouldings, indicate that the Bijamandal was originally dedicated to this goddess and perhaps also to Siva. The inscription does not mention the foundation of the temple and the way it has been engraved on a pillar seems to indicate that it was added to a pre-existing structure. But was the temple relatively new when the inscription was incised on the pillar? Or was the building erected earlier than the reign of Naravarman? If it is earlier, when is it to be placed? These are not simple questions to answer given the present state of the evidence and the degree to which it has been analysed.

One site which potentially provides some answers is Bhojpur.33 The Siva temple there, much celebrated because it houses the largest linga in India, is not far from Bhilsa, standing as it does on the banks of the Betwa about forty kilometres upstream. Although a detailed comparative study would be needed to determine the matter scientifically, the huge base-mouldings at Bhojpur suggest that it is closely related to the Bijamandal, the two monuments perhaps even sharing the same architects and masons. Surviving sculptures from the two sites also share a number of decorative and iconographic conventions (Fig. 10). Because it was never completed, the Bhojpur temple has no dedicatory inscription. The name of the locality, however, points to an association with king Bhoja (c. 1000-55). This link is corroborated by a colossal Jaina image with an inscription mentioning [rajadhi] rajaparamesvara Bhojadeva.34 The Jaina image is in a shrine not far from the Siva temple and the location, if not the shrine’s current fabric, belongs to Paramara times. The implication is that there was considerable sculptural activity at Bhojpur when Bhoja was on the throne in the first half of the eleventh century. (more…)

The Thirteen Towers of Chankillo form a toothed horizon atop a low ridge in north coastal Peru. Archaeologists have discovered that the 2,300-year-old stone towers are part of an ancient solar observatory. Image is courtesy of Ivan Ghezzi.

A line of 2,300-year-old stone towers north of Lima, Peru, form the oldest known solar observatory in the Americas, a team of archaeologists has found. The discovery that the line of stone markers tracks the sun’s progress across the sky also suggests that sophisticated sun worship may have thrived in the region nearly two millennia prior to the famous sun cults of the Incas, the team says.
(more…)

Locating Domains of Devotion, Patronage and Power in the Eleventh Century

by MICHAEL WILLIS

The large hill known as Udayagiri, not far from ancient Vidisa in central India, is a crucial site for the history of the Gupta kings and for the artistic and cultural dispensation that was forged during their rule. A number of well-known inscriptions, incised in or beside the hill’s cave-shrines, mention Candragupta II and members of his court.1 Equally well-known are the monumental relief sculptures of Visnu’s incarnations and a number of other deities.2 The amount of writing on this material over the last hundred years might give the impression that little of substance remains to be tackled, but such an impression is unwarranted. In the first place, Udayagiri has a long but unacknowledged history which goes back to at least the second century BCE. This is  shown by archaeological traces, not yet properly investigated, as well as inscriptions and sculptural remains which pre-date the Gupta period. We may note, as an example, a large lion capital of the late second century BCE now in the collection of the Archaeological Museum at Gwalior.3 This and related material shows that the Gupta presence at Udayagiri represents a reworking of an ancient site. The intrusive character of this reworking is demonstrated by the way in which fifth-century caves and images cut directly through older shell-inscriptions.4 The scale of change in Gupta times is further indicated by the massive sculpture of Varaha in Cave 5, the single-most important image at Udayagiri. Although the modern road has altered  the ground level to some extent, it is not difficult to see that the adjacent pond once came up to the edge of the hill and that water washed across the base of the image during the rainy season. In other words, the great Varaha once rose out of the water, exactly as the incarnation is visualised in Matsya Purana, chapter 248.5 This demonstrates that the changes made in Gupta times were simply a random series of additions by pious donors. Rather, the new caves, sculptures and environmental features involved a significant modification to the immediate landscape and the dedication of the hill to gods who were being reconceived in dynamic new ways. Extant scholarly writing ignores this and related aspects of the geographical setting. The myopia extends to the sculptures, which have been discussed as single items out of context, and to the cave-shrines, which have been described individually rather than as parts of a larger architectural ensemble.6 (more…)

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (a)
UNESCO World Heritage Site View of the largest excavation pit of the Terracotta Army.

State Party     China
Type              Cultural
Criteria           i, iii, iv, vi
Identification   #441
Region (b)       Asia-Pacific

Inscription History
Formal Inscription:     1987
                             11th Session

(a) Name as officially inscribed on the WH List
(b) As classified officially by UNESCO

The Terracotta Army (Traditional Chinese; Simplified Chinese; pinyin: bīng mǎ yǒng; literally "soldier and horse funerary statues") or Terracotta Warriors and Horses is a collection of 8,099 life-size Chinese terra cotta figures of warriors and horses located near the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (Chinese; pinyin: qín shǐ huáng líng). The figures were discovered in 1974 near Xi’an, Shaanxi province, China. (more…)

Digging Up History : Norwegians Help Restore Ancient Church

An interview with J. Bjornar Storfjell

Other articles by or related to Bjornar Storfjell:

Thor Heyerdahl’s Final Projects - Bjornar Storfjell (AI 10.2, Summer 2002)
Voices of the Ancients: Rare Caucasus Albanian Text - Zaza Alexidze (AI 10.2, Summer 2002)
Church in Kish: Carbon Dating Reveals Its True Age - Bjornar Storfjell (AI 11.1, Spring 2003)

Who would have guessed that a rather plain, small church, found in a remote part of northwest Azerbaijan, would excite so much international attention? What could be so fascinating about a building that hasn’t even been in use for the past two centuries?

Norwegians have the answer. In the village of Kish, near the town of Shaki, which snuggles up to the foothills of the Caucasus mountains, a team of Azerbaijani and Norwegian scholars is investigating a remarkable remnant of Caucasus Albanian Christianity. Based on their findings, they estimate that this local church may be nearly 1,500 years old. (more…)