Abstract

Conventional narratives of Indian history tend to focus on agricultural communities and have typically underestimated the role of fishing and fishers. With over 7500 km of coastline along present day India, there is great potential for examining how fishing traditions changed and continued through time, and how they might have facilitated social complexification typically associated with agricultural communities. This paper will present preliminary survey results from the Northern Kerala Archaeological Project (NorKAP). Located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats mountain range, the Bharathapuzha River Valley is characterized by slightly rolling uplands and plateaus that descend sometimes dramatically to the coastal plains. NorKAP's field survey begins to shed light on the changing relationship between coastal communities and those in the upland.