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ABSTRACT
This article considers the food memories and diaspora of culinary traditions among the communities residing in present-day Dholavira village, Gujarat, India. Dholavira village, located near the Dholavira Harappan World Heritage site, is home to several ethnic communities. Over the last few decades, there has been a proliferation of the idea of food archaeology in the subcontinent’s culinary research, but most studies conducted so far have highlighted the regionality of culinary landscapes and are grounded in archaeometric techniques. This study moves in a new direction and applies ethnoarchaeology to explore food memories disseminated through the use of simple cooking tools and heirloom recipes. Additionally, the study documents the ceramic production techniques and associated memories of the one local potter, who is based in Janan village near Dholavira.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the following individuals and institutions without whom this project would not have been possible: the local people Dholavira and Janan villages for their support and cooperation during the project; the Archaeological Sciences Centre at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar for unprecedented support and providing financial aid during the project; Jaimalji, Chamanji, and Rawatji, the residents of the village associated with the site for a long time, for their immense support during the fieldwork and for sharing their knowledge and experiences with us; the local administration and Mr. Shyam Borkar, Assistant Archaeologist of the Archaeological Survey of India, for providing tremendous assistance during the execution of the project; and lastly, the Research and Development Wing at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar for their financial assistance in the project.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
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Notes on contributors
Ahana Ghosh
Ahana Ghosh is a doctoral scholar pursuing her dissertation research at the Archaeological Sciences Centre, Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, India. She is a Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Doctoral Researcher at the Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania. She uses scientific tools such as lipid residue analysis and compound-specific isotope analysis to evaluate the ancient food practices of the Harappan culture. Her work encompasses the concept of the culinary landscape and the realities and representations of food. She earned an MPhil in Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology from Deccan College, Pune, India, and an MA in Archaeology from the University of Calcutta, Kolkata. She worked as a Junior Research Fellow for the Anthropological Survey of India, Ministry of Culture, and held Visiting Researcher positions at the Archaeological Research Laboratory, Stockholm University, Sweden and the Ceramic Residue Analysis Laboratory at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington in the U.S. Her grants and other awards include a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Scholarship 2023–2024, Research Support Award 2022–2023 from the Society for Archaeological Sciences, and Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage research scholarship 2024–2025. She has published numerous articles in international scholarly journals and presents her work regularly at international conferences.
Sharada Channarayapatna
Sharada Channarayapatna is an assistant professor of Humanities and Social Science, jointly with Earth Sciences, at the Archaeological Sciences Centre of the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar. She has over 15 years of experience in reconstructing past human-animal interactions at Harappan sites and elsewhere in India and southern Europe. She earned an MA in Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology from Deccan College, Pune, India; an MSc in Sustainable Development from Sikkim Manipal University, India; an MSc in Quaternary and Prehistory research from the University of Ferrara, Italy; and a double PhD from Deccan College in Archaeozoology and University of Ferrara in Quaternary and Prehistory. Her fellowships and grants include the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship, Nehru Trust Small Study Grant for Independent Projects, Indian Council of Historical Research’s Junior Research Fellowship, and Anusandhan National Research Foundation SERB-Power research grant. She has authored numerous journal articles, book chapters, and books, and regularly presents her research findings at national and international scholarly conferences.