KARACHI: The second day of the workshop on archaeology organised by the Italian consulate and the provincial department of culture and tourism began with a detailed presentation by Dr Niccolo Manaserro on archaeology: methodological theory and practice.

Dr Manaserro said contrary to what people thought, archaeology was 10 per cent digging and 90 per cent studying items (found through excavation). He said they did not look for pretty objects nor did they keep or sell items that they found after digging because they belonged to the country where they were found. He said now new sciences were applied to archaeology which created data that must be processed.

Dr Manaserro said there weredif ferent types of expeditions. He said what was needed initially was to identify a site for excavation, conduct feasibility studies, and make necessary arrangements for excavation, such as seeking an NOC for doing it. He said survey precedes excavation, and the latter was the biggest part of the (field) work. He said archaeologists should observe contemporary societies as an example of past societies. They must, he said, use contemporary tools to understand ancient techniques. He said, for example, his team visited craft shops in Sindh to see how tiles and bricks were made.

Dr Manaserro said there were different kinds of archaeology classical, underwater, industrial etc. Similarly, there were different types of sites settlements, sacred, funerary, procurement and processing sites. He saidstudying geographical maps was important for site identification, as was the case with Banbhore, where they had maps made by travellers from the 19th and early 20th centuries. He said it was important to have a detailed map of various branches of the Indus River. He said the ancient city of Daybul was on the sea near a branch of the Indus Delta, but that branch shifted many times.

He said he could not be sure until he found evidence of it.

Dr Manaserro said there were other investigative tools such as satellite photos. He said Google Earth was also a significant tool and if we looked at Banbhore through it, we would know that clearly it was a historical site. He added that kite photos were another tool. Helping the students sitting in the hall understand the excavation process, he said excavation also meantdestruction, so it was essential to record everything that you (archaeologists) did. He put emphasis on stratigraphy as well.

The second presentation of the day was made by Dr Agnese Fusaro on pottery analysis: methodological theory and practice.

She said ceramics could be considered a proper documentary source. She, however, maintained that it was not the final aim of an archeologist but was an important tool which supported historicalresearch.She saiditshouldbe used in a wider archaeological context.She saidithelpedunderstand the stratigraphic and geographical resources present in a given site (of excavation). She said it also answered important questions, some of them related to time and space.

Dr Fusaro said pottery assisted archaeologists in understanding the craft, trade and society of agiven time. She said it enabled them to recognise important items and comprehend the social and cultural milieus of social classes. She said archaeological remains did not speak for themselves, therefore, such methodologies were employed. Addressingthe students attending the workshop, she said first they needed to collect potsherds and then check if there were any organic or inorganic residues. She said collected pottery should be dried in a shadowy place because sunlight could damage it.

After doing that, Dr Fusaro said, it was important (for archaeologists) to classify the pieces of pottery which another scholar could verify. She said it would be a mistake to think of any pottery as a unit because each pottery was different and a wider view was requiredtosimplifythe(research) work. She said then groups should be created to find similarities and differences in them. She said groupsled toareality.

Dr Fusaro also discussed in detail the different ceramic features and techniques (shaping, surface treatment, decorative, firing process etc) used in pottery.