Earthwatch Award Recipient Summary
Awardee: Shanti Pappu, Ph.D
Affiliation: Sharma Centre for Heritage Education
Project: Community Education in Southern India (formerly Early Man in India)
Award: 2003 Young Scientist Award
Project Synopsis
For several years, Dr. Shanti Pappu has been directing excavations at Attirampakkam, southern India, one of the richest Palaeolithic sites in Asia. Earthwatch teams working alongside local laborers have added to her archive of more than 12,000 artifacts, including stone tools, fossil teeth of large herbivores, and animal footprints. Their findings have added to our knowledge of the ecology of Stone Age hominids that once lived in an ancient floodplain environment here, and helped place India in the context of migratory routes taken by the first humans out of Africa. More recent teams have focused on communicating research findings with local classrooms, to build a sense in the community of the rich prehistoric heritage of the region.
Award Outcomes
The Young Scientist Award allowed Dr. Pappu to:
· Excavate additional trenches at the site of Attirampakkam
· Document excavation sites and artifacts using photographs, contour maps, casts, and preservation techniques
· Develop community awareness programs
Dr. Pappu employed and trained village laborers from Krishnaveram to excavate and document finds at Attirampakkam, resulting in significant discoveries. Test pits at the highest point in the site yielded evidence of a rich industry, near the end of the Palaeolithic, which had been unreported before. Test pits at the adjacent area of Aryathur did not yield tools, giving researchers a better idea of the area used by early hominids. Overlapping digital photographs of ancient surfaces revealed a landscape marked by braided streams where the hominids camped and made their tools.
The excavations were also an important step in establishing the cultural value of the site within the community. Through training, village laborers have become highly skilled in their work. The excavations provide them with the only solid employment they have for the three or four months after the harvesting season, during which they have virtually no income. By setting up small site museums, the hope is that some continuous employment can be ensured for a small percentage of these villagers for part of the year.
Community awareness programs were also initiated with the help of the Young Scientist Award funds, and have become the focus of Earthwatch teams on the project. Villagers and children from both rural and urban schools have taken part in workshops at the site. Some school groups stay overnight for campfire-side programs, complete pencils, notebooks, and mini-tool kits for the children. Students are also given the use of a camera and film to take photographs of what they found interesting. After lectures, children take part in excavating mock-trenches at the site, learning how to dig carefully and record, draw, photograph, and interpret what they find. The children also enjoy programs on local ecology and environment, and workshops on how the climate has changed through time. Workshops for local teachers and college students, highlighting educational methods for teaching children archaeology and geography, ensure that future generations will appreciate the fascinating prehistory of the region.
Publications and Papers
Pending
Quotes
"I cannot express my amazement and gratitude at receiving the Earthwatch Young Scientist Award. Earthwatch has given us something invaluable in our work-the input of dedicated volunteers and staff members, who have given us support and encouragement that our work is worthwhile and that people do benefit from it. I cannot express the immense help and support we got at the site, and from the Earthwatch staff members."
"This Young Scientist funding has gone towards uncovering valuable data related to Indian prehistory. It will thus also benefit villagers, students, and countless other individuals who work at the site, or visit it and are involved in some way or the other with South Indian heritage."