Litster, Mirani (2019) Maldivian Archaeology. In: Smith, Claire, (ed.) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham, Switzerland.

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Abstract

The Maldives are an archipelago located centrally in the northern Indian Ocean, southwest of Sri Lanka and India (see Fig. 1). The occupation history is layered, largely because the Maldives acted as a historical waypoint for seafarers traveling across the Indian Ocean (Maloney 2013; Mohamed 2005). Investigations into the material remains of past occupation were initiated in the mid-1800s, through a series of antiquarian investigations. Archaeology during the early 1900s tended to focus on establishing the nature of a pre-existing Buddhist occupation phase, with more recent investigations establishing the role of the islands within past globalizations (Litster 2016) and the export of cowry shell money (Haour et al. 2016, 2017; Mikkelsen 2000). This encyclopedia entry focuses on the archaeological research undertaken in the Maldives, concentrating on the historical development of the discipline in the region.

Item ID:	71089
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Reference)
ISBN:	978-3-319-51726-1
Keywords:	Maldives; Indian Ocean; Buddhism; Cowry Shell; Monetaria moneta
Copyright Information:	© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019.
Date Deposited:	09 Jun 2022 00:48
FoR Codes:	43 HISTORY, HERITAGE AND ARCHAEOLOGY > 4301 Archaeology > 430102 Archaeology of Asia, Africa and the Americas @ 100%
SEO Codes:	13 CULTURE AND SOCIETY > 1307 Understanding past societies > 130702 Understanding Asia’s past @ 100%
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