Archaeomaterials research focuses on the scientific analysis of materials created or used by past societies. This includes ceramics, metals, glass, stone, and organic materials. Researchers examine composition, manufacturing techniques, and usage to understand technological development, trade networks, and cultural practices. Archaeometallurgy pertains to the technological study of metallic archaeological artefacts and art objects to gain insights into the manufacturing techniques and history of technology and to also the provenance and sources of metal which could help in their classification. Such disciplines are truly inter-disciplinary bridging archaeology, materials science, and chemistry for deeper historical insights. Despite the challenges such as of fieldwork in remote areas, women have played and continue to play vital roles in archaeological sciences, contributing as field archaeologists, researchers, lab scientists, and theorists. This talk touches on some of the speaker's key research in terms of Indian contributions in the field of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy and foundry techniques. Insights on technical finger-printing of south Indian metal icons using lead isotope analysis are also explored such as the Nataraja bronze touching on archaeoastronomical perspectives as well. The talk aims to highlight gender perspectives with respect to the field of archaeological sciences.
Prof. Sharada Srinivasan is a Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru working in archaeological sciences, archaeometallurgy and technical art history. She received the Padmashri in Archaeology in 2019. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021 in Archaeology and is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain. She is a recipient of the Indian National Academy of Engineering INAE Woman Engineer of the Year Award in 2021 and the Dr. Kalpana Chawla Young Women Scientist Award for 2011. She has undertaken scientific documentation of several rare crafts including high-tin bronze working, mirror making, image casting and bell making, wootz steel making as well as archaeometallurgical investigations on ancient mining and metallurgy such as lead isotope ratio finger-printing of Chola and south Indian bronzes. She is first author of the book ‘India’s Legendary Wootz Steel’ and contributing author to ‘Ecstasy of Classical Art’, the bronze catalogue of National Museum, Delhi and co-editor of ‘Digital Hampi’ on digital explorations into the art and architecture of Hampi.
Anna Mani, after whom this lecture series is based, was a pioneering Indian physicist and a meteorologist who carried out path-breaking research in 1950s India, against all odds. After completing her undergraduate degree in physics from Presidency College in Madras, she undertook research at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. She worked with C V Raman on the spectroscopy of diamonds and rubies and published 5 single author papers. However, she was not granted a PhD degree by Madras University, on the pretext that she did not have a masters degree, ignoring the fact that she had obtained a scholarship for graduate studies on the basis of her undergraduate degree. She took up an internship to study physics at the Imperial College in London but ended up specializing in meteorological instrumentation. She returned to India in 1948 and joined the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) at Pune. In 1976, she retired as the deputy director general of IMD, and subsequently returned to the Raman Research Institute as a visiting professor for several years. During her career as a meteorologist, Anna Mani helped in setting up instruments for studying the ozone layer and wind energy, as well as a millimeter-wave telescope at Nandi Hills to study solar radiation. She wrote two books on Solar radiation.
The Anna Mani lecture series is part of the ongoing effort by the Working Group for Gender Equity (WGGE) of the Astronomical Society of India (ASI) for increasing gender sensitisation in the astronomy community in India. This year (2025), it is being organised jointly by the WGGE-ASI and the Gender Amity Cell of the IIA.
Working Group for Gender Equity, Astronomical Society of India (WGGE-ASI) and the Gender Amity Cell of IIA