Research

Archaeozoology

• ❖ Palaeoproteomic approach to identifying animal species use for the worked bone industry at the Bronze Age settlement of Dholavira - Sharada C.V. 2021-2022. External support: Association of Environmental Archaeology.
• ❖ Multi-element isotopic investigations to reconstruct human-animal interactions at the Indus Civilization site of Dholavira, Gujarat, India — Sharada C.V. 2022-2025. DST- SERB POWER grant
• ❖ Dholavira worked bone assemblage: a study of its typology, technology, experimental reproduction and digitization — Sharada C.V. 2021-2023. External support: Indian Council of Historical Research.

Ceramic Petrology

• ❖ PCeramic Petrology and Provenance Studies of Harappan Ceramics from the Drishadvati and Sutlej plains during the third millennium BCE - V. N. Prabhakar. 2021. Funded by IIT Gandhinagar

Ethnoarchaeology

• ❖ Mapping Kapadvanj Glass: the Last Surviving Traditional Tank Furnace in India - Alok Kumar Kanungo 2021-2023. External supports: Corning Museum of Glass Rakow Grant, International Commission on Glass CTC Project Fund, and National Science Foundation.
• ❖ Cultural heritage as a facilitator for the sustainable development — Claire Smith and Chris Wilson (Flinders University), Alok Kumar Kanungo and Nishaant Choksi (IIT Gandhinagar). 2019-2022. External support: Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Govt. of India.

Materials science

• ❖ Traditional glass-making in India: rediscovering the manufacturing of Reh Glass — Laure Dussubieux and Alok Kumar Kanungo. 2021-2022. External support: Negaunee Foundation, Field Museum
• ❖ Reconstruction of manufacturing patterns through elemental and isotopic characterization of raw materials — Laure Dussubieux, Thomas R. Fenn, Shinu A. Abraham and Alok Kumar Kanungo. 2018-2022. External support: National Science Foundation, USA.

Metrology

• ❖ Further research in metrology and Harappan town-planning — Michel Danino

Paleo-climatic Investigations

• ❖ Paleo-landscape, Paleo-drainage & Potential Groundwater investigations in the Great Rann of Kachchh, Gujarat, Western India. — Debajyoti Pal and V. N. Prabhakar. 2023. External Support: Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India.

Remote Sensing and GIS

• ❖ Geoarchaeology of Gujarat: An Integrated Study based on Historical Maps of the past few Centuries, Remote Sensing Data and GIS - V. N. Prabhakar and Ekta Gupta (Post-Doctoral Fellow, ASC). 2021. Funded by IIT Gandhinagar

Ceramic Studies

• ❖ Multifaceted Analysis of Archaeological Ceramics, Beads, Shell Remains and External Trade Relations of the Historical City of Vadnagar, Gujarat. - V. N. Prabhakar. 2022. External support: Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Gujarat.

Geosciences

• ❖ Morphodynamics of Markanda River using chronology and sediment provenance of fluvial terraces near Harappan sites in northwest India — Ajit Singh in collaboration with Vikrant Jain and Michel Danino (all IIT Gandhinagar) | completed


• ❖ Impact of sea level fluctuations, climate change or tectonic activity on the decline of the Harappan settlement of Dholavira, Kutch, India — Vikrant Jain (IIT Gandhinagar), in collaboration with Jyotiranjan Ray (Physical Research Laboratory), Vimal Mishra, Amit Prashant, Saptarshi Dey, V.N. Prabhakar (all IIT Gandhinagar) | ongoing
• This project, funded by DST under Science & Heritage Research Initiative (SHRI) funding programme, aims to understand whether, and to what extent, the sea/base level changed during the existence of the Harappan city of Dholavira (Rann of Kutch); it will also study the impact of tectonics on Dholavira’s vicinity and of seismic activity on the city’s evolution. Besides these possible factors, it will look at evidence of the impact of climate change (with the monsoon weakening ~ 4 ka) on the decline and abandonment of Dholavira.

Ground penetrating radar

• ❖ Ground Penetrating Radar study of areas adjacent to Lingaraj Temple (Bhubaneswar, Odisha) — Silky Agrawal in collaboration with Amit Prashant and V.N. Prabhakar | completed
• GPR survey near Lingaraj Temple, Bhubaneswar: IIT Gandhinagar (Silky Agrawal under the direction of Prof. Amit Prashant and with archaeological inputs from V.N. Prabhakar) carried out in April 2021 a GPR survey on plots adjacent to the Lingaraj Temple, Bhubaneswar, at the request of Government of Odisha, as levelling activities had brought to light ancient structures there. Prof V.N. Prabhakar interpreted anomalies detected by the survey in terms of man-made structures in all three surveyed areas. The project concluded that to ascertain the nature of these anomalies, further investigations and archaeological excavations are required.
• ❖ Ground Penetrating Radar study of an area of Dholavira close to the East Reservoir — Silky Agrawal and Mantu Majumder in collaboration with Amit Prashant (all IIT Gandhinagar) | completed
•             Related Publication ↗
• ❖ Ground Penetrating Radar study of two areas at the historical city of Vadnagar (Mehsana district, Gujarat) — Silky Agrawal in collaboration with Amit Prashant (all IIT Gandhinagar) | completed

Heritage studies

• ❖ Cultural Heritage Preservation and Restoration using Digital 3D Models — Shanmuganathan Raman in collaboration with Gaurav Srivastava, Vineet Vashista, Nithin V George, Michel Danino (all IIT Gandhinagar) and Vinay P Namboodiri (IIT Kanpur) | ongoing
• The objective of this IMPRINT-funded project (with Nvidia as industry partner) is to demonstrate and spread awareness about the conservation and restoration of cultural artifacts and monuments by providing researchers, professionals, and hobbyists with a place to learn about and work with 3D models.
  In particular, the project will develop a complete framework for the efficient construction of accurate 3D models of existing Indian cultural heritage sites and artifacts. It will also develop a restoration framework that could quickly fill missing parts in the digital models of cultural heritage sites and artifacts using mesh-processing tools.
  Of great concern to urgent requirements in all aspects of heritage management, the techniques developed by this project will permit the printing of 3D models of artifacts, with the potential to supply replicas to museums, libraries, Indian embassies, schools, and various cultural institutions. Besides, those techniques will make it easy to create online repositories of 3D models of Indian monuments and artifacts for public and government uses, such as documentation, archiving, fingerprinting, showcasing, research, education, etc.
  As of now, different laser scanners suitable for monuments and artifacts have been acquired along with 3D printers. Test runs with artifacts from a few nearby museums have enabled us to refine scanning techniques and make plans for the scanning of a wide range of artifacts and structures from different cultural heritage sites and museums, beginning with those in Gujarat.
•             Related Publication ↗

Surveying and mapping techniques

• ❖ Multi-Sensor Drone Survey and Mapping of the Harappan Site of Dholavira — Vikrant Jain, Pradeep Srivastava, Vimal Mishra, Amit Prashant, Shanmuganathan Raman, Michel Danino (all IIT Gandhinagar) | 1st phase completed
• A 3D drone mapping of the entire Harappan site of Dholavira in the Rann of Kutch, as part of a project funded by Archaeological Survey of India. Data generated by sensors for normal light, infrared and laser (LiDAR) was used to develop a 3D Digital Terrain Model (DTM), a high resolution map of the fortified area of the site and some surroundings, and also to identify shallow subsurface features.

• ❖ 2018, July. Experimental Extraction of Zinc using Ancient Technique, under the supervision of Dr. A.K. Kanungo.

• ❖ 2016, January. Experimental smelting of copper ores collected from Ambaji mines, Gujarat, under the supervision of Prof. J.M. Kenoyer.

  Having collected copper ore samples from Ambaji in Gujarat (see under Field Trips in Events page), Prof. J.M. Kenoyer proceeded to smelt them using traditional techniques that might have been available to Harappan craftsmen: the copper-bearing rock lumps were crushed and broken into fragments; the loose and unwanted portions were carefully discarded, with only the nodules with enough green stains retained for smelting. A furnace was built with unbaked sun-dried bricks obtained from a local kiln near Adalaj. The furnace was heated using charcoal from a local market, and the fire maintained for two to three hours, adding the copper ore at regular intervals. Altogether, about 4 kg of crushed ore weighing 4 kg was used; the ore melted and deposited at the bottom in the form of slag. As the ore was not very rich , the amount of copper produced was low and in the form of small prills only. Prof. Kenoyer conducted two experimental smelting: the first was only partly successful and out of two crucibles, only one had its content partly melted; the second involved four crucibles and one was successful, using modern graphite crucibles and electric air blowers.

• ❖ 2016, January. Experimental melting of two grades of iron to obtain crucible steel, under the supervision of Prof. J.M. Kenoyer

•        Indian Knowledge System Cell at the Archaeological Sciences Centre, IIT Gandhinagar. Under this funding, three projects will be undertaken. They are (i) to understand the architectural principles and civil engineering concepts in the planning of Harappan settlements in general and Dholavira in particular, (ii) to understand the ancient technology and innovative materials used in the bead manufacturing of Harappan civilisation, and (iii) Create physical models/toys to promote the ancient discoveries among children and common civilians. - V. N. Prabhakar and Michel Danino. 2022. External support: IKS Cell, Ministry of Education, Government of India.'.