Archaeologists’ Micro-cultures: A Methodological Critique of Early Indian Archaeology

Abstract

This article is a critical appraisal of archaeologists’ classification and typology of artefacts, which lead them to the construction of micro-cultures in early Indian archaeology. The central argument is that these archaeological micro-cultures in Indian civilization are archaeologists’ constructs, based on artefactual classification and typology in time and place. Arguably, early Indian archaeological micro-cultures based on ceramic typology are inconsistent and dubious and fail to represent the nature of particular cultures, as well as the structure of the total culture. Further, the article maintains that archaeologists’ methodologically flawed construction of micro-cultures is ahistorical. It obfuscates historians’ macro picture of the composite culture in Indian civilization.