Pia Brancaccio's research of art and material culture from India's Deccan plateau in the first millennium CE demonstrates the historical economic relationships and cross-cultural exchanges between interior continental Indian communities and coastal settlements. In her presentation "he Indian Ocean and the Deccan Plateau: Archaeological Traces of Cross-cultural Encounters ," Brancaccio makes use of recovered potteries, coins, beads, and figurines from archaeological excavations in the effort to understand the integrated relationship between interior and coast in regards to the transport of Indian Ocean luxury goods.

While coins, beads, cloth, ivory, semi-precious stones, wines, spices, and certain foods were all part of an economic system the items simultaneously served as elements of fashion, culture, and/or religion. Brancaccio theorizes that cross-cultural borrowing was typically melded to local fashions and styles of specific periods, creating an incorporation that mixed the borrowed elements with older local forms of fashion. Brancaccio demonstrates that Indian Ocean trade that entered the interior via gateways at the coast was characteristically tied into broader local political-economies

CCF

Reading List:

Begley, V. and De Puma, D. (1991) Rome and India. Madison.

Breccia, E. (1930) Terrecotte Figurate Greche e Greco Egizie del Museo di Alessandria.

Bergamo Burgess, J and Indraji B.(repr.1976) Inscriptions from the Cave Temples of Western India. Delhi.

Boussac, M.F. ans Salles J.F. (1995) Athens, Aden, Arikamedu.

Delhi. Casson, L. (1989) The Periplus Maris Erythrei. Princeton.

Cribb, J. (1999) Magic Coins of Java, Bali, and the Malay Peninsula. London.

Czuma, S. (1985) Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India. Cleveland.

Deo, S.B. (1973) Excavations at Bhokardan. Nagpur.

Deo, S.B. and Dhavalikar, M.K. (1968) Paunar Excavation. Nagpur.

De Romanis, F. and Tchernia A. (1997) Crossings. Delhi.

Deshpande, M.N. (1965) Classical Influence on Indian Terracotta Art.

Le Rayonnemnt des Civilisations Grecque et Romaine sur les Cultures Peripheriques, Huitieme Congres International D'Archeologie Classique (Paris, 1963).

Karttunen, K. (1994) "Yonas, Yavanas and Related Matter in Indian Epigraphy," South Asian Archaeology 1993.

Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference of the European Association of South Asian Archaeologists, ed. A.Parpola and P. Koskikallio. Helsinki

Meile, P. (1940-41) Les Yavanas dans l'Inde Tamoule. Melanges Asiatiques.

Pingree, D. (1978) The Yavanaja1taka of Sphujidvaja. Cambridge, Ma.

Ray, H. (1986) Monastery and Guild. Delhi.

Ray, H. (1995) The Yavana presence in Ancient India. Athens, Aden, Arikamedu, ed. M.F.Boussac and J.F. Salles. New Delhi.

Ray, H. and J.F. Salles (1996) Tradition and Archaeology. Delhi.

Senart, E. (1902-03) The Inscriptions in the Caves at Karle. Epigraphia Indica VII.

Senart, E. (1904-05) The Inscriptions in the Caves at Nasik. Epigraphia Indica VIII.

Stein, O. (1935) Yavanas in Early Indian Inscriptions. Indian Culture I, 3.

Torok, L (1995) Hellenistic and Roman Terracottas from Egypt.

Roma. Vats, M.S. (1925-26) Unpublished Votive Inscriptions in the Chaitya Cave at Karle. Epigraphia Indica XVIII.

Zvelebil, K. (1956) The Yavanas in Old Tamil Literature. Charisteria Orientalia praecipue ad Persiam pertinentia. Praha.

Pia Brancaccio

Professor of Art History
The College of New Jersey

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