ABSTRACT
In South Asia, archaeological research has largely focused on the ancient period, which is generally considered to end around 500 CE. Later periods have not been completely neglected, as can be seen in the archaeological studies of different aspects of the imperial capital of Vijayanagara (fourteenth–seventeenth centuries CE), the hinterland/metropolitan region around this city, as well as Velha Goa during Portuguese colonial occupation (1510–1843 CE). Archaeologically, however, what remains under-researched is the intervening period from the sixth to the fifteenth centuries CE, which is the focus of this chapter. A historiographical survey of those archaeological studies that deal with some of the methodological issues that are most relevant for the medieval period has been attempted. It is hoped that a discussion of several related issues pertaining to methods that have been followed in the older as well as more recent surveys and excavations may be able to contribute further towards our understanding of the archaeologies of the medieval in South Asia. Even though in this chapter, it has been attempted to locate the medieval in South Asian archaeology, yet invariably this historiographical exercise has made it clear that it is impossible to not make forays into the early historic as well as the early modern periods due to the longer continuities that may have existed at the beginning as well as the end of the medieval period. Hence, the temporal frame of the medieval should be viewed as an open and a porous entity and perhaps therein lies the strength of the middle period.
