Trees and Woodlands of South India

This book will introduce the vegetation of South India, with a critical review of the history of vegetation concepts and model of how vegetation has changed in response to climatic and human factors. The methodological contribution of archaeological charcoal studies is outlined. This book brings together a new practical guide to working on archaeological charcoal from this region, and reviews ecological details and ethnographic evidence on the uses of a selection of some 80 tree species and some of their relatives. Available evidence from archaeological wood studies in the region are reviewed including some illustrative new case studies to demonstrate the potential of an archaeological charcoal approach to studying past human environment co-determination.