Project News and Media
February 2021 Press release
"Computers are helping to uncover archaeological information from historical maps of South Asia and the Levant" Department of Archaeology facebook page (03/02/2021) https://www.facebook.com/971982372876915/posts/4939060609502385/?d=n
December 2020 Press release
"What’s cooking? Analysis of fatty residues on ancient pottery sheds light on food habits of Indus Civilisation" Department of Archaeology website (09/12/2020), https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/whats-cooking-analysis-fatty-residues-ancient-pottery-sheds-light-food-habits-indus
September 2020 Press release
"Can cities emerge without a 'ruling class'? New research by Dr. Adam S. Green (McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research) suggests 'yes'." Department of Archaeology facebook page (18/09/2020), https://www.facebook.com/971982372876915/posts/4331413210267131/?d=n
July 2020 Press release
"Cloud Computing and Machine Learning are Identifying Archaeological Sites from Space" Department of Archaeology website (22/07/2020), https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/cloud-computing-and-machine-learning-are-identifying-archaeological-sites-space
July 2019 Special Report
"Finding archaeology with historical maps", Current World Archaeology 96: 54.
June 2019 Press release
"'We are inheritors of a rural civilisation': rural complexity and the ceramic economy in the Indus Civilisation in northwest India", Department of Archaeology facebook page (21/06/2019),
https://www.facebook.com/archaeologycambridge/posts/2753199941421807
Jan 2019 Press release
"Differentiating summer and winter rainfall in northwest South Asia around the 4.2 ka climatic "event"", Department of Archaeology website (15/01/2019), https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/differentiating-summer-and-winter-rainfall-in-northwest-south-asia-around-the-4-2-ka-climatic-201cevent201d
Jan 2019 Press release
"Mapping archaeology while mapping an empire: Using historical maps to reconstruct hydrology and ancient settlements", Department of Archaeology website (07/01/2019), https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/mapping-archaeology-while-mapping-an-empire-using-historical-maps-to-reconstruct-hydrology-and-ancient-settlements
July 2018 Press release
"Barley heads east: Living plant varieties reveal ancient migration routes across Eurasia", Department of Archaeology website (19/07/2018), https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/barley-heads-east-living-plant-varieties-reveal-ancient-migration-routes-across-eurasia
July 2018 - Blog post
"Link to British School at Athens blog post" TwoRains blog(26/07/2018) https://tworains.wordpress.com/2018/07/26/link-to-british-school-at-athens-blog-post/
May 2018 Episode of documentary series
"Trade", First Civilisations PBS (USA)/SBS (Australia) https://www.pbs.org/show/first-civilizations/
April 2018 Blog post
"Update and links to two team blog posts" TwoRains blog(16/04/2018) https://tworains.wordpress.com/2018/04/16/update-and-links-to-two-team-blog-posts/
March 2018 Blog post
"What makes and breaks civilisations?" British Academy Blog (02/03/2018) https://www.britac.ac.uk/blog/what-makes-breaks-civilisations
March 2018 Poster for Cambridge Science Festival
Nov 2017 Press release
"Ancient barley took high road to China, changed to summer crop in Tibet", Department of Archaeology website (20/11/2017), https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/ancient-barley-took-high-road-to-china-changed-to-summer-crop-in-tibet
Oct 2017 Press release
"Lessons from the past for the future of food", Department of Archaeology website (04/10/2017),https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/lessons-from-the-past-for-the-future-of-food
Aug 2017 Press release
"Dr Cameron Petrie awarded British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship", Trinity College website (31/08/2017), https://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/?s=Petrie&post_type=post
Aug 2017 Press release
"Archaeologist among four Cambridge academics awarded British Academy Mid-Career Fellowships", Department of Archaeology website (16/08/2017), https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/archaeologist-among-four-cambridge-academics-awarded-british-academy-mid-career-fellowships
Aug 2017 Press release
"Finding the Lost Rivers of the Indus Civilisation from Space", Department of Archaeology website (02/08/2017), https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/finding-the-lost-rivers-of-the-indus-civilisation-from-space
Jul 2017 Press release
"Cambridge-led collaborations aim to tackle global food security and public health challenges", Department of Archaeology website (21/07/2017), https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/cambridge-led-collaborations-aim-to-tackle-global-food-security-and-public-health-challenges
May 2017 School presentation
"Archaeology and the Archaeology of Climate Change", Chesterton Community College, Cambridge
Mar 2017 Press release
"ERC : Celebration of ten years of Anthropology, Archaeology and Classics Projects", Department of Archaeology website (15/03/2017), https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/erc-celebration-of-ten-years-of-anthropology-archaeology-and-classics-projects
Cameron Petrie interviewed by Radio Ecoshock
Click below to listen to Cameron Petrie discussing "How and Why Collapse Happens" with Radio Ecoshock:
http://www.ecoshock.org/2017/03/how-and-why-collapse-happens.html
Indus Valley 'urban' tag "contested" (though not by us!)
Click below to see an article in The Telegraph, Calcutta, India on March 5th 2017
https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170306/jsp/nation/story_139226.jsp#.WL6CA38j6jI
"Enticing rice"
Exploring the domestication of rice in India
Article... By Luiseach Nic Eoin on Nov 25, 2016
"Farming rice in India much older than thought, used as a ‘summer crop’ by the Indus Civilisation"
Cambridge Global Food Security Initiative member Cameron Petrie and his colleague Jennifer Bates have discovered that rice was cultivated in India at the same time farming techniques were developed in China, around 2800BC, and 400 years earlier than previously thought. This suggests systems of seasonal crop variation that would have provided a rich and diverse diet for the Bronze Age residents of the Indus valley.
The Land, Water, Settlement project excavations in northwest India. Credit: C. Petrie
Evidence for very early rice use has been known from the site of Lahuradewa in the central Ganges basin, but it has long been thought that domesticated rice agriculture didn't reach South Asia until towards the end of the Indus era, when the wetland rice arrived from China around 2000 BC. Cambridge researchers working in collaboration with Banaras Hindu University have found evidence of domesticated rice was an important component of a diverse farming system in South Asia as much as 430 years earlier.
Dr Bates said: “It is certainly possible that a sustainable food economy across the Indus zone was achieved through growing a diverse range of crops, with choice being influenced by local conditions. It is also possible that there was trade and exchange in staple crops between populations living in different regions, though this is an idea that remains to be tested.”
Dr Petrie added: “Such a diverse system was probably well suited to mitigating risk from shifts in climate. It may be that some of today’s farming monocultures could learn from the local crop diversity of the Indus people 4,000 years ago.”
Their research has been covered widely by international press:
The Times of India: Rice farming in India began much before Chinese rice arrived
The Mirror: People have been getting takeaway curries for 5,000 years as dish first appeared in Bronze Age
