Last year the RAS Student Series provided us with a wide range of thought provoking lectures and discussions and so we are very much looking forward to the first evening of the 2013-2014 series on Wednesday 9th October when there will be two fascinating talks. Ruman Banerjee from the University of Bristol will speak on 'Rock Art of Central India: An Exploration and Analysis' and Nikolaos Vryzidis from SOAS will present 'Orthodox vestments in the Ottoman Empire: 16th and 17th Centuries'.
Ruman Banerjee is pursuing his Ph.D research from the University of Bristol on 'The Rock Art of Central India' specializing on some discreet aspects of archaeological theory, dating and mapping. Mr. Banerjee has extensive experience in morphometry and typology of prehistoric stone tools, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, mass spectrometry and micromorphology. He is a student Fellow of the RAS and also the Royal Anthropological Institute and has attended several national and international seminars, undertaken field work in India, Spain, France, Portugal, Italy and the UK. His collaborative research initiatives have so far been published in international journals like the Quaternary International and Land Use Policy.
In summary of his lecture Ruman says:
Rock art of Central India represents one of the richest repositories of material culture in the form of paintings and engravings in the vast stretches of Mirzapur and adjoining Rewa district of the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Rock art, surveyed and documented in the Bundi and Bhilwara districts of Rajasthan invoked further possibilities for Indian rock shelter archaeology. Apart from the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bhimbetka, the rock art of Mirzapur, Rewa, Bundi and Bhilwara districts revealed considerable promise in terms of technostylistics, chronostylistics, continuity of rock art and superimposition of diverse morphic elements in Indian archaeology and cultural heritage studies. From the prehistory to the contemporary the character, ramifications and manifestations of this extraordinary cultural resource yielded continuity, revival and rejuvenation. This vast repository of data on human evolution, migration and diffusion as envisaged by rock art, is in great danger in the present decade. The cultural and natural heritage of the region is gradually getting destroyed by rapid mining, honey collection, fire making and camping activities within the painted shelters.
This paper aims to detail and discuss a few remarkable findings in Indian rock art from these three states of Central India. Both absolute and relative dating techniques have confirmed that rock art of this particular region of Central India reveals Pleistocene period rock paintings. This is important for the interpretation of the rich corpus of other undated motifs based on paintings which have been dated. This work therefore relates the dated art with the as yet undated newly discovered paintings by means of both relative and absolute chronology, entangling living cultural heritages. It proposes a set of guidelines and methodologies to protect the natural and cultural resources for posterity and global heritage.
This paper aims to detail and discuss a few remarkable findings in Indian rock art from these three states of Central India. Both absolute and relative dating techniques have confirmed that rock art of this particular region of Central India reveals Pleistocene period rock paintings. This is important for the interpretation of the rich corpus of other undated motifs based on paintings which have been dated. This work therefore relates the dated art with the as yet undated newly discovered paintings by means of both relative and absolute chronology, entangling living cultural heritages. It proposes a set of guidelines and methodologies to protect the natural and cultural resources for posterity and global heritage.
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| Christ on an Ottoman Kemha textile, 17th century |
The second talk of the evening is by Nikolaos Vryzidis who studied History of Art & Archaeology at the School of Oriental & African Studies specialising on the material culture of the Near & Middle East (Medieval & Ottoman periods). His academic interests include the relationship between Christian and Islamic art in Medieval and early Modern Mediterranean, cross-cultural contacts and exchanges in the Ottoman Empire. His talk will be raise questions on Ottoman Christian aesthetic in relation to vestments and fabrics used by the Orthodox Church, from the fall of Constantinople onwards. Ecclesiastical art, and especially liturgical textiles, as the most formal expression of Christian Ottoman aesthetic is examined from the point of view of the Byzantine tradition's transformation within the Ottoman Empire's cultural environment and its intellectual implications.
The evening will start at 6.30pm with the lectures which will be followed by a question and answer session and drinks reception. The evening is free and open for all. For more information please contact info@royalasiaticsociety.org or 02073919424 and for directions to the society please visit our website.