Speaking Archaeologically™

Pen Dinas Hill Fort, Aberystwyth Pen Dinas is the pre-eminent hillfort on the Cardigan Bay coast. The position of Pen Dinas allowed for visual command and political control of the two regional arterial rivers, with sweeping views both inland and also to the North and South of Cardigan Bay. This hour-glass shaped fort is situated on a ridge between the rivers Rheidol and Ystwyth.  Two peaks are enclosed and it is clear that originally they were separate enclosures. At first the northern summit was surrounded by ramparts with a timber revetment and a ditch. Soon afterwards, the southern crest was more substantially fortified with a stone-faced rubble bank and ditch some 3m deep. There were entrances at the north and south with gates supported by posts.  A period of decay or deliberate destruction may have followed before the southern fort was re-modelled. Eventually both forts were joined together with a new revetted wall across the saddle between the peaks, known ...

“Defaced ruins of architecture and statuary, like the wrinkles of decrepitude of a once beautiful woman, only make one regret that one did not see them when they were enchanting.”                                                                                            - Horace Walpole Rattan Kaur Rainu is a Research Wing member at Speaking Archaeologically since August 2018 This blog doesn’t begin on an adventurous note. Neither does it involve a spontaneous road trip. Rather it is the product of an intrigue that drove me to explore a place  I had never even heard of until a few days ago. Goethe said architecture is music. Well, architecture and music are the two things that have always been my favourite. Be it an an ol...

THE BHULI BHATYARI KA MAHAL An oddly disproportional and red Hanuman stands sternly, ripping his chest open as Delhi wizzes by his feet. Many seem almost oblivious to this grand and grotesque gesture. There is a meeting to get to, a date, an assignment to submit a week after it was due, or in most cases just an air conditioner to find and set up base   in front of. Behind the statue, a thin, unassuming road slithers past all the chaos, ending at a place strikingly different from where it began. It ends in the 14 th century, at a now decrepit Tughlaq era hunting lodge. The bhuli bhatyari ka mahal is conveniently tucked away behind the hanuman statue in busy Karol Bagh. It is a spot like so many others in the capital, where the ancient and the modern live cheek and jowl, and hopefully will continue to do so for a long time to come. It faces a large DMNC water tank, where on most occasions, the water turns a rancid green. Every few minutes, the silence around gets in...

“The past is a foreign country and art is the passport to it.” - Anonymous If my life could be a testament to anything it would probably be to the fact that staying up post three scrolling through Instagram while sipping on your second cup of espresso can land you in the most unexpected of places; sometimes ,even the right places. Now don’t get me wrong , I don’t mean to recommend such unhealthy behavior to anyone reading this but that is how I came across ‘Speaking Archaeologically’s’   Instagram handle some three months ago. Needless to say i t wasn't long before I fell in love with history all over again  and decided this organisation was something I wanted to be a part of . What followed that was me applying the famed and oft used three fold Bollywood strategy to get anything you want in life, which in this case included religiously stalking the Instagram page for recruitment posters or declarations, working hard to prove I’m worthy by sending in submissions and final...

SA Travel Diaries : Ashokan Inscription, Kalsi by Gauri Singh The site of Ashoka's Inscription at Kalsi Kalsi is a valley town surrounded by lesser Himalayan mountains from 3 sides and Doon plains on one side, on the confluence of River Yamuna and Tons. It lies about 60 kms from capital city of Dehradun on the road to Chakrata via Herbertpur on the h ighway of Jaunsar region, Dehradun district of state Uttarakhand. The valley is the first plain town when one descends from the Himalayas and is therefore also an economic hub of the Jaunsar-Bawar Tribal Region. Situated at an altitude of 780 meter above the sea level and on the banks of 2 rivers, the place experiences a moderate climate in summers and has scenic surroundings. The alluvial soil drained down by the rivers makes this place one of the most fertile region in the surrounding Pachwa-Doon plains. The place is especially known for The Rock Edict of the great Mauryan emperor Ashoka and is one of the most o...