History and Archaeology

[Guest guest]

Hello,First, thanks for this Group.Next, I am new and though I have searched and read through some of the posts, no doubt I have missed much.My interest is in trying to get to grips with the period ca 300 BCE-300CE, to try and understand what relationships may have existed between the peoples of 'Greater India' and the Mediterranean world of Classical Antiquity. Yes, this is a path well-trodden by many before, though I hope my colleagues and I can make some small contribution to what is a broad and complex subject.There seems to be a significant problem with trying to study this period: vagueness and unreliability. Here is one scholary comment on this:Recent discoveries from excavations and surveys in the

northwestern regions of the Indus valley, as well as in the Punjab and Sindh,

suggest that these earlier models of the Mauryan and Kushana urbanism need to

be reexamined and possibly revised. -  Between the empires By Patrick OlivelleIn southern India, finds of Roman coins were used as external references. Though Roman coins have been found in sites of NW India, some recently, I am not aware of how they may have been used similarly. Much of the dating has been by cross-referencing to internal data, which itself may be unreliable.I notice quite a number of threads in this Group are debating issues revolving around date and identity. This is unsurprising, as scholarly debate on these subjects also has these problems.Uninformed speculation (debate without reliable data) is not useful and the situation clearly needs improving. I would therefore most appreciate learning who is doing what to provide this much-needed data.The archaeological study of India has a long history of its own. I am frankly amazed to find the paucity of good data and resultant mass of speculation for the period I mentioned. I have a small project to do a little something about it and it would be marvelllous to learn of others also making a decent attempt.