WITH 5000 YEARS OF HUMAN HISTORY LYING IGNORED BENEATH OUR FEET, IT IS NO WONDER ARCHAEOLOGISTS IN THE COUNTRY TAKE THEIR ROLE AS ‘CARETAKERS OF THE PAST’ VERY SERIOUSLY. AS THEY RACE AGAINST TIME TO SALVAGE A PAST THAT MAY BE LOST TO US FOREVER, KRISHNA RAMKUMAR LEARNS WHY OPPORTUNITIES IN ARCHAEOLOGY ABOUND, AND HOW YOU CAN MAKE THE CUT

“Archaeology is about the functional past of human society and its cultural surroundings. All that exists today, did not occur overnight. It occurred over thousands of years,” asserts Professor R Mohanty, a senior faculty member at the Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Studies in Pune, who is currently digging at an excavation site in Orissa. He further elucidates, “Today we use iron blast furnaces, which is essentially industrial technology, but we also know that thousands of years ago, people were already using this technology. How did it happen? When did it happen? Who came up with it?”

LOST IN THE SANDS OF TIME?

Professor Vibha Tripathi, former head of the archaeological department at Banaras University in Varanasi, and a current faculty member, is an expert on metallurgy through the ages. She drives home the significance of archaeology today, saying, “Today, archaeology is that much more important with the increasing population. Every day, there is so much important data that is being lost irretrievably. Policies and awareness must come together to make protection mandatory. Expert help is required to explain the significance of a spot before development is allowed. Recently, a Mumbai-based firm, in collaboration with a foreign company, requested some help in identifying an expert who could assess whether their project in the northeast would be disturbing any archaeological data. Moreover, there are cases where mounds and excavations I saw last year, disappeared. We must not be callous or careless about our heritage.”

   Others agree. Prof Mohanty avers, “India has the largest number of archaeological sites in comparison to any other country in the world. Only China is comparable in this regard.” Professor K Rajan, Head Of Department, Archaeology and Ancient History, Pondicherry University, adds, “With 5000 years of continuous history, and prehistoric human settlements that date back to a million years ago, India is blessed with a repository of cultural treasures. But very swiftly, these are being removed. Vandalism, organised looting, industrialisation and development, are major reasons for this loss. Unless we get on to a war footing, everything will be gone. This requires a great deal of human resources - people who can understand unique areas, ecosettings and varied cultural ethos of the country. These people must be broadminded, untainted by regionalism, and see the country as a whole.”

ARCHAEOLOGICAL ARENA

Dr K P Rao, Senior Faculty, Ancient History and Archeology department, Central University, Hyderabad, who recently made a significant discovery, declares, “It is the thrill of discovery that defines this career. Archaeological monuments across the country are a major tourist attraction. Before the IT boom, the tourism industry brought in the highest amount of foreign exchange. It is said that four to five crore people in India are dependent on tourism. Archaeologists have a major role to play in discovering, displaying, studying and preserving these structures of heritage.”
   There are a host of career opportunities for archaeologists. These include stints with the Archeological Survey of India, which is the largest employer, taking in close to a hundred new people every year, state archaeological departments, museums (both public and private require curators), NGOs in preservation, and expert consultancy positions that could include survey work on sites prior to development of dams or major structures, and of course, tourism. The work is travel-oriented and can span the globe.

INSTITUTE INDICATOR

Indian Schools of Archaeology

Department of Archaeology, Deccan College, Maharashtra

Institute of Archaeology and Heritage Management, Kutub Institutional Area, New Delhi

Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, Banaras Hindu University, Uttar Pradesh

Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, M S University Baroda, Gujarat

Pondicherry University

Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, University of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh

PG Department of History, Sambalpur University, Orissa

Department of History and Archaeology, Karnataka University, Dharwar

Department of Archaeology, Tamil Calcutta University (Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu and Kolkata, West Bengal)

Vishwa Bharati, Shantiniketan, West Bengal

Department of Archaeology, Calcutta University, Kolkata, West Bengal

Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training, Kolkata

Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, University of Madras, Chennai

International Schools of Archaeology

Department of Archaeology, Cambridge University, Downing Street, Cambridge, UK

Institute of Archaeology, University College, London

Institute of Indian Studies, University of Groningen, Netherlands

Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, West Yorkshire

The School of Oriental and African Studies, London

Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

CNSR-UMR 126, Centre d' Archeologie, Paris, France

Institut for Indische Philogie and Kungstgeschichte der Frein Universitat, Berlin, Germany

Department of Asian and African Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland

The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, USA

WHAT DOES IT TAKE?

Experts opine that any good archaeologist must possess a keenness to learn, study and discover, with some basic knowledge of history, a persevering spirit and a scientific bent of mind. Prof Tripathi adds, “This career requires a great deal of physical stamina. You can’t have a delicate constitution with dust allergies. It also requires some degree of fluency in English, as all the papers and early accounts are out in English, and one needs to absorb these studies constantly. Science is another strength, with areas such as paleobiology or ancient metallurgy that are part of the study of data. Most importantly, you need to have an adventurous streak.” Prof Rajan agrees, “There can be no armchair archeologists. You must be inclined to field study.”
   Elaborating on what a student needs to pursue a career in archaeology, Prof Mohanty says, “Anyone who has a bachelor’s degree in any stream - whether it is art, engineering, biology or any other science stream - can pursue their master’s degree in archaeology. Whether you want to focus on understanding the evolution of food (from when early man actually developed the culture of rice or barley over thousands of years), from wild grasslands or the jungle, to finding steel created 2900 years ago in India, when some parts of the world did not know the uses of iron - archaeology requires a variety of perspectives.” Dr Rao adds, “It is essential to have more archaeologists who take on diverse studies. For instance, India has the greatest number of ancient inscriptions - more than a lakh, but there is no one left to read them. Most experts alive are either retired, or about to retire. If something is not done about it, soon enough, we will never be able to understand ancient writing.”
   As Prof Mohanty says, archaeology is about how the past is relevant today - to industry, trade, mercantile systems, technology, even thought. It is not just the past, but the aptitude of the human mind to analyse the past. Essentially, archaeologists are crusaders, who help preserve the very fabric of human memory.
   (Indicative listing)