The Other Archaeologists: The Ignorant Villagers and the Colonial Archaeology of Taxila in the Late Nineteenth Century

This paper investigates the role ordinary people have played in archaeological field research during the late nineteenth century. Its geographical focus is on the Taxila valley in Pakistan. It was in the early later nineteenth century that Alexander Cunningham carried out extensive explorations in the area. He engaged local people during the course of his explorations aiming at gathering information about the valley’s archaeological landscape and previous diggings at many sites. Of particular importance was a resident of Shah-dheri village, called Nur. Notwithstanding their potential contribution during the surveys, Cunningham still failed to credit them for it. He rather maligned his local informants and guides as ignorant and destroyers. This paper argues that we need a discovery as well as reappraisal of the role ordinary local people have played in archaeological investigations in the subcontinent. The category of ordinary people under discussion here is different from what native scholarship embodies, viz. scholars, pundits and learned informants. It includes people who are imperceptible, or even absent, in the margins and bottoms of the pages of colonial knowledge. Such researches would not only reveal novel aspects of colonial archaeology but would, at the same time, lead to devise ways for potential engagements between archaeologists and local populations in present-day South Asian archaeology.