Bhandarkar Institute To Offer Online Archaeology Course Starting 12 May

Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute is offering an online course on archaeology. It kicks off on 12 May and concludes 23 May, spanning 10 lectures, each about an hour, designed and delivered by Dr Pramod Joglekar.

According to the institute, the first-of-its-kind archaeology course promises a 360-degree insight into the basics of this interdisciplinary field, which is key to understanding our origins and the conditions and environment of the past, deciphered carefully by piecing together ever-growing evidence.

"Archaeology is not only related to monuments and heritage sites, but archaeology is also about the common man and the everyday life that history often tends to forget," Dr Joglekar says.

The field, which stokes copious curiosity, "is also associated with places of dark heritage, such as places of enslaved people, war, extermination camps, etc," and "unearths everything that history, perhaps unwittingly, chooses to forget over a long period of time,” he adds.

Dr Joglekar is a former professor and head of the Department of AIHC and Archaeology at Deccan College, Pune. His education spans several Master's degrees, specialising in the areas of zoology, statistics, and indology, and topped by a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in archaeology.

He is vastly experienced in research and teaching, spending 38 years and 25 years in those roles respectively. His areas of specialisation are bioarchaeology, environmental history, archaeological science, pre- and protohistory, history of science and technology, indology, and biolinguistics, and research methodology. He has published 47 books, edited two volumes, and written over 200 research papers and 27 popular articles.

Taught by Dr Joglekar, the course will cover 12 topics, explaining the fundamentals of archaeology, the history of the field, archaeological periods, methods of archaeological investigation, science in archaeology, and even pseudo-archaeology.

Bhandarkar Institute is a pioneering institute of orientology in India. Since its establishment in 1917, it has worked to spread the knowledge and wisdom of the East, especially India. Along the way, it has become a treasure trove of manuscripts and rare books too.

During the pandemic, the institute organised various short online courses with an Indic focus, such as Introduction to Indian Heritage, Introduction to Vedas, 18 Parvans of Mahabharata, and Ancient Indian Astronomy.

The next in line is this online course on archaeology, which kicks off 12 May 2022.

More information about the archaeology course can be found here.

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