Exploring the forest and mapping its archaeology: Bandhavgarh National Park and Tiger Reserve, India

Abstract

The archaeology of historical India has usually been perceived through the lens of cities and states, leaving forest tracts to a large extent unexamined. This article considers the historical signature in a segment of the Bandhavgarh National Park and Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India, in order to understand how histories of occupation in jungles and wilderness where no settle-ments presently exist can be studied. Our survey invol-ved a combination of ground-level investigations using GPS devices along with an analysis of satellite images to explore whether such images can be used for locating structures and sites. The earliest archaeological markers in Bandhavgarh are cave shelters of the 2nd century CE, which form the subject of this article.