27 | Preliminary information on copper and stones objects from Mohenjo-Daro | Massimo Vidale скачать в хорошем качестве

27 | Preliminary information on copper and stones objects from Mohenjo-Daro | Massimo Vidale

International Colloquium on the Emerging Perspectives of the Harappan Civilization | February 10 - 12, 2023 Talk 27: Preliminary information on an unreported hoard of copper and semiprecious stones objects from Mohenjo-Daro Abstract: In 1984, Maurizio Tosi spotted the fragments of a copper vessel eroded in situ on the surface of Mohenjodaro. In the following weeks, together with other colleagues, he micro-excavated the find in the laboratory unearthing a set of two blades, two axes, a group of copper bangles, and 106 beads of different materials. The position of each single object and its micro-stratigraphic and depositional setting were carefully recorded. After the end of the field activities of the German-Italian project at Mohenjodaro that Tosi co-directed with Michael Jansen, the hoard was not published, and the records remained in a distant, scarcely accessible archive. The closure of IsMEO in 2012 and Tosi's death in 2017, and the closure of the Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale, Rome, in the same year, were additional problems. While we are presently locating the original photographic documentation (all our archives now having been moved to the new Museo delle Civiltà, Rome) the excavation report, with maps and sections, was finally found. I will very briefly and preliminarily present what so far has been recovered, and some possible implications and potentials of this important, so far “forgotten” discovery. Speaker: Massimo Vidale Speaker's Profile: Massimo Vidale was born in Bassano del Grappa (Vicenza, Italy) on April 10, 1956. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Padova (Methodology of Archaeological Research and Bronze age Archaeology of Central Asia, Iran and the Indus Valley). He has taught ancient technology at the Central Institute for Restoration (ICR, Rome) from 1990 to 2003. He has been for a long time Visiting Professor at the Universities of Genoa and Rome “La Sapienza” (Taphonomy and Funerary Archaeology). In these contexts, he carried out micro-stratigraphic excavations of urns with cremated remains for the detailed reconstruction of cremation processes and subsequent secondary burials. In addition to collaborations on advanced studies of dentition in prehistory, he specializes in studying ancient and traditional contemporary craft technologies from an ethnoarchaeological perspective; and in micro-stratigraphy for the reconstruction of funerary behavior. Between 1987 and 1988, he was a Fellow in Materials Analysis at the Conservation Analytical Laboratory of the Smithsonian Institution (Washington DC, USA). Later (1987-1988), with a NATO postdoctoral fellowship, he continued his collaboration with SI and the University of Wisconsin, Madison (USA) continuing his studies on ancient ceramic technologies and craft industries of the Indus civilization. Between 1987 and 1988 he studied at the Italian Archaeological School of Athens, where he obtained a postgraduate degree in Greek and Roman Archaeology. Since 1976, he has an unbroken record of field experience in Italy, Central, Middle, and South Asia, and North Africa. He has carried out archaeological and ethnoarchaeological projects in Italy, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, India, Nepal, Indonesia, Tunisia, and Eritrea. He is the author of more than 300 specialized articles on the results of his research, of many articles addressed to a more general audience, of 15 monographic volumes, and two co-edited volumes.