Sally and Alvin V. Shoemaker Chair

Department of Anthropology

University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

University of Pennsylvania

Teaching: Courses

In 1997 I completed the field portion of the Vijayanagara Metropolitan Survey (VMS) which I co-directed with C.M. Sinopoli. This ten-year project, the first systematic regional survey carried out in India, revolutionized our understanding of South Indian landscape history, especially the regional dynamics of the hinterland of Vijayanagara, capital of the eponymous empire which claimed control over much of southern India between the fourteenth and sixteenth century AD.  We documented nearly a thousand archaeological sites in the course of this project, showing how this huge city was provisioned and how its growth affected the surrounding countryside.


Although the field component of the Vijayanagara project is complete, analysis and publication is still underway.  The first volume of a monograph series is now published, covering three survey blocks and outlining our approach.  We anticipate a second volume on the survey as well as further publications on excavations and the results of my work on regional vegetation and land use.  Data for the latter derive from analyses of pollen, charcoal, stable isotopes, and sediment from cores extracted from Vijayanagara-period reservoirs.