Background
Raymond Allchin, was born in Harrow on 9 July 1923, son of Frank Macdonald Allchin, a doctor, and Louise Maude. His brother wasCareer
Raymond was an active field archaeologist throughout his career and his first introduction to South Asian fieldwork was in the Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan in 1951. Here, under the direction of Codrington, he studied the standing remains of Shahr-e-Zohak. Later that year, in the company of Bridget, he began his PhD research in Raichur District. Raymond's selected research topic, the Neolithic of Peninsular India, was one of the areas of South Asian archaeology most poorly understood and was a neglected area of research when compared to the Bronze Age Indus cities or those of the Early Historic period in the north of the Subcontinent. After undertaking a survey of sites within the District, he selected the ash-mound of Piklihal for further investigation. Excavating in 1952, and again in 1957, with the assistance of the Andhra Pradesh Department of Archaeology and Museums, Raymond demonstrated that the ash mound had a distinct Neolithic sequence with later evidence of Iron Age occupation above. In order to test some of his earlier theories about Piklihal, Raymond selected Utnur for excavation, one of the best-preserved ash mounds. In a single season, he cut through metres of cinder and ash and discovered that the mounds were contained by series of post-holes, demarking superimposed circular stockades. He again dated this site-type to the Neolithic of south India and to the fourth millennium BC on account of the associated polished stone axes. He interpreted the stockades at Utnur as annual cattle camps, whose accumulations of dung were burnt at the end of each grazing season, thus creating a regular sequence of ash and cinder. He later developed these ideas into a narrative which bound together Hindu ritual tradition and contemporary pastoral practice with the archaeological findings, suggesting that the regular burning of the stockades was not a calamity or the result of raiding but part of an annual fire rite, perhaps surviving today as Holi, Divali or Pongal. On moving to Cambridge in 1959, Raymond turned his attention to Pakistan and worked at the site of Shaikhan Dheri between 1963 and 1964. Working with Professor A. H. Dani of Peshawar University, Raymond and Bridget supervised the processing of antiquities and pottery drawing during the first season. Although only on site for one season, Raymond later produced research on artefacts from Shaikhan Dheri. He suggested that a number of small iron plates pierced with small holes around their edges, some of which had rusted together, formed part of the scale armour from the cap of a cataphract, based on observations from Gandharan sculpture, excavation reports, textual sources and contemporary examples from Rajput. He also suggested that a number of globular vessels, that Sir John Marshall had interpreted for distillation of water at Sirkap, Taxila, were actually alcohol stills. Basing this hypothesis on ethnographic analogy, Vedic references and Rajput texts he stated that "Considering the importance of alcohol for man- kind . . . it is surprising that comparatively little is known of its early history,'12 and concluding that 'it may well be that the art of distillation was India’s gift to the world!" Raymond then shifted his focus back to India and undertook an archaeological reconnaissance of the coast ofBridget Allchin
Like Raymond, Bridget's family also had a long heritage of medical practitioners, including Dr Thomas Monro, an ancestor who had attempted to treat the 'madness' ofPublications
Publications: 1950s—1960s
* 1954 Development of Early Cultures in the Raichur District of Hyderabad. PhD Dissertation, University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies. * 1964 Tulsi Das, Kavitavali, translated with introduction (UNESCO), London, Allen & Unwin, pp 229. * 1953 'A flake tool from the Oxus', Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 19, 227. * 1955 'Rock paintings and engravings in Raichur, Hyderabad', (with D.H. Gordon), Man, 55, 114, 97–99. * 1956 'Stone alignments of Southern Hyderabad', Man, 56, 133–136. * 1957 'The Neolithic stone industry of North Karnataka region', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 19, 321–335. * 1957 'The culture sequence of Bactria', Antiquity, 31, 131–141. * 1957 'Sanskrit eduka – Pali eduka', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 20, 1–4. * 1959 'Poor men's thalis, a Deccan potter's technique', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 22, 250–257. * 1959 'Upon the contextual significance of certain groups of ancient Indian signs', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 22, 548–555. * 1960 Piklihal Excavations, Andhra Pradesh Archaeological Series, 1, Hyderabad, Government of Andhra Pradesh, pp xvii, 154. * 1961 Utnur Excavations, Andhra Pradesh Archaeological Series 5, Hyderabad, Government of Andhra Pradesh, pp 75. * 1961 'Ideas of history in Indian archaeological writing', in C. Philips, ed., Historians of India, Pakistan and Ceylon, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 241–259. * 1961 'The antiquity and methods of gold mining in ancient India', Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 5, 195–211. * 1962 'The Neolithic stone industry of the Santal Parganas', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 25, 306–330. * 1962 'A Neolithic pot from the Billa Surgam caves, Andhra Pradesh, Antiquity, 36, 302–303. * 1962 'Painted pottery from Patapad in Andhra Pradesh, Antiquity, 36, 221–224. * 1963 Neolithic Cattle Keepers of South India: A study of Deccan ashmounds, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp xvi, 189. * 1963 'Cattle and economy in the Neolithic of South India', in A.E. Mourant and F.E. Zeuner, eds, Man and Cattle, London 149–155. 1963 'The cultural tradition of India', The Listener, March, 25–39. * 1964 'An inscribed weight from Mathura', Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 7, 201–205. * 1966 'Pottery and head-rests from Narasipur Sangam', in D. Sen and A.K. Ghosh, eds, Studies in Prehistory, Robert Bruce Foote Memorial Volume, Calcutta, Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 58–63. * 1966 'The place of Tulsi Das in North Indian devotional tradition', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 123–140. * 1966 Tulsi Das, The petition to Ram, translation of Vinayapatrika with introduction, notes and glossary, London, Allen & Unwin, pp 365. * 1968 'The social thought of Swami Vivekananda', Swami Vivekannanda in East and West, London, Ramakrishna Vedanta Centre, 84–105. * 1968 'Archaeology and the date of Kaniska', in A.L. Basham, ed., Papers on the Date of Kaniska, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 4–34. * 1968 'Explorations in districts Baroda, Broach and Surat' (with J.P. Joshi), Indian Archaeology 1967–68 – a review, New Delhi, Archaeological Survey of India, 9–13. * 1969 'Early domestic animals in India and Pakistan', in P.J. Ucko and G.W. Dimbleby, eds, The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals, London, Duckworth, 317–22. * 1969 'Early cultivated plants in India and Pakistan', in P.J. Ucko and G.W. Dimbleby, eds, The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals, London, Duckworth, 323–29. * 1969 'Dilmun and the gulf of Cambay', Antiquity, 43, 315–16.Publications: 1970s—1980s
* 1970 'Malvan – further light on the southern extension of the Indus Civilisation' (with J.P. Joshi), Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society¸ 1, 20–28. * 1970 'A pottery group from Ayun, Chitral' (in honour of Sir Harold Bailey), Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 33, 1–4. * 1971 'The attaining of the void – a review of some recent contributions in English to Virasaiva studies', Religious Studies, 7, 339–59. * 1972 'Malvan' (with J.P. Joshi), in S.B. Deo, ed., Archaeological Congress and Seminar Papers, Nagpur, Nagpur University, 36–42. * 1972 'A piece of scale armour from Shaikhan Dheri, Charsada', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2, 113–20. * 1972 'A cruciform reliquary from Shaikhan Dheri, Charsada', in P. Pal, ed., Aspects of Indian Art, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 15–26. * 1973 'An inscribed reliquary from Shaikhan Dheri, in H.H. Hartel and V. Moeller, eds, Indologen-Tagung, 1971, Wiesbaden, Steiner, 265–72. * 1973 'Problems and perspectives in South Asian archaeology', in N. Hammond, ed., South Asian Archaeology, 1971, Park Ridge, Noyes Press, 1–11. * 1974 'The emergence of civilisation in North India', Encyclopædia Britannica. London, Encyclopædia Britannica * 1974 'Pottery from graves in the Perumal hills near Kodaikanal', in A.K. Ghosh, ed., Perspectives in Palaeoanthropology (Dharani Sen volume), Calcutta, Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 299–308. * 1975 'The reconciliation of jnana and bhakti in Ramcaritamanasa', Religious Studies, 12, 81–91. * 1976 'The mysterious Path of Love in Tulsi Das', Vedanta for East and West, London, Ramakrishna Vedanta Centre, 152, 3–11. * 1976 Preface for reprint of Annual Reports of the Archaeological Survey of Mysore, 1–3. * 1977 'Recommendations concerning archaeological sites', in E.F. Sekler, ed., Masterplan for the Conservation of the Cultural Heritage in the Kathmandu Valley, UNESCO, Paris, 147–54. * 1977 'Recommendations concerning moveable cultural property', in E.F. Sekler, ed., Masterplan for the Conservation of the Cultural Heritage in the Kathmandu Valley, UNESCO, Paris, 134–47. * 1977 'Religious symbols and Indian thought', in H.R.E. Davidson, ed., Symbols of Power, Cambridge, The Folklore Society Mistletoe Series, 1–35. * 1977 'A modern Indian potter's technique', in D. Chattopadhyaya, ed., History and Society: Essays in honour of Professor Niharanjan Ray, Calcutta, Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 1–13. * 1978 'Surface collections from Pushkar', in B. Allchin, A.S. Goudie and K. Hegde, eds, The Prehistory and Palaeogeography of the Great Indian Desert, New York, Academic Press, 331-1+9. * 1978 'Monument conservation and policy in India', Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 126, 746–65. * 1978 'Introduction' (with N. Hammond), in F.R. Allchin and N. Hammond, eds, The Archaeology of Afghanistan, New York, Academic Press, 1–9. * 1978 'Conclusion' (with N. Hammond), in F.R. Allchin and N. Hammond, eds, The Archaeology of Afghanistan, New York, Academic Press, 405–14. * 1978 The Archaeology of Afghanistan (with N. Hammond, ed. and contributor), London, Academic Press, pp xxiii, 451. * 1979 A Source-book of Indian Archaeology (with D.K. Chakrabarti), New Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, Vol. 1, pp x, 354. * 1979 'India – the ancient home of distillation?’, Man, 14, 55–63. * 1979 'Stamped Tangas and condensers: evidence of distillation at Shaikhan Dheri', in M. Taddei, ed., South Asian Archaeology, 1977, Naples, Istituto Universitario Orientale, 755-97. * 1980 'A note on the "Asokan" stupas of Patan', in A.L. Dallapiccola, ed., The Stupa, its Religious, Historical and Architectural Significance, Wiesbaden, Frantz Steiner Verlag, 147–56. * 1980 'Textile impressions from the South Indian Iron Age', P.E.P. Deraniyagala Commemoration Volume, Sri Lanka, 64–7. * 1980 'Archaeological and language evidence for the movement of Indo-Aryan speaking peoples into South Asia', J. K.R. Cama Oriental Institute, Bombay, 48, 68–102; also published in 1981, in M.S. Asimov, B.A. Litvinsky, L.I. Miroshnikov and D.S. Rayevsky, eds, Ethnic Problems of the history of Central Asia in the Early Period (2nd millennium B.C.), Moscow 336–49. * 1981 'Preliminary report on the Bannu Basin Project (1977–79) – Introduction', in H. Härtel (ed.), South Asian Archaeology, 1979, Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 217–218. * 1981 'Preliminary report on the excavations at Lewan (1977–78)’ (with J.R. Knox), in H. Hartel, ed., South Asian Archaeology, 1979, Berlin, Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 241-44. * 1981 'Preliminary report on the excavations at Tarakai Qila (1978–79)’ (with J.R. Knox), in H. Hartel, ed., South Asian Archaeology, 1979, Berlin, Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 245–50. * 1981 'Antiquity of gold mining in the Gadag region', in M.S. Nagaraja Rao, ed., Madhu, Recent Researches in Indian Archaeology and History, Delhi, Agam Kala Prakashan, 81–3. * 1981 'The legacy of the Indus Civilisation', in Gregory L. Possehl, ed., Harappan Civilization, A Contemporary Perspective¸ New Delhi, Oxford & IBH, 325–33. * 1981 'Antiquity and continuity', in P. Jayakar et al., eds, The Indian Experience, 125–29. * 1981 'Antecedents of the Indus Civilization (10th Annual Mortimer Wheeler Archaeological Lecture)’, Bulletin of the British Academy, 66, 135–60. * 1981 'How old is the city of Taxila?’, Antiquity, 56, 8–14. * 1982 Indian Monuments through British Eyes, 1780–1980: Handlist of the exhibition in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, pp 1–18. * 1984 'The northern limits of the Harappan culture zone in the light of recent observations', in B.B. Lal and S.P. Gupta, eds, Frontiers of the Indus Civilization, New Delhi, Books and Books, 51–4. * 1985 'Guide to the Asokan inscriptions' (with K.R. Norman), in B. Allchin, ed., South Asian Studies, 1, 43–50. * 1985 'The interpretation of a seal from Chanhu-daro and its significance for the religion of the Indus Civilization, South Asian Archaeology 1983, in J. Schotsmans, J. and M. Taddei, M., eds. Naples, Instituto Universitario Orientale, Dipartimento di Studi Asiatici, Series Minor 23: 369–84. * 1986 'Radiocarbon dating of some early sites in North West Pakistan' (with K.D. Thomas), South Asian Studies, 2: 37–44. * 1986 'Drumbeats from the past', Pupul Jayakar Felicitation Volume, Dimensions of Indian Art –Pupul Jayakar Seventy, in L. Candra and J. Jain, eds., Delhi, Agam Kala Prakashan, * 1989 The Conservation of the Indian Heritage (with B. Allchin andPublications: 1990s—2000s
* 1990 'Indo-Aryan and Aryan: language, culture and ethnicity'. Ancient Ceylon 10:13–23. * 1990 'Patterns of city formation in Early Historic South Asia'. South Asian Studies 6: 163–74. * 1990 'The end of the Harappan Urban Phase and its aftermath'. Ancient Ceylon 10: 25–40. * 1991 Shahr-i Zohak and the History of the Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan, with P.H.B. Baker, ed. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports Number 570, Ancient India and Iran Trust Series No. 1: pp. 215 * 1991 Coningham R.A.E. & Allchin F.R. 'Anuradhapura Citadel Archaeological Project: Preliminary Report of the Second Season of Sri Lankan – British Excavations at Salgha Watta'. South Asian Studies 7: 167–175. * 1992 'An Indus ram: a hitherto unrecorded stone sculpture from the Indus Civilization'. South Asian Studies 8: 53–4. * 1992 Coningham R.A.E. & Allchin F.R. 'Anuradhapura Citadel Archaeological Project: Preliminary Results of the Third Season of Sri Lankan – British Excavations at Salgaha Watta'. South Asian Studies 8: 155–167. * 1993 'The urban position of Taxila and its place in Northwest India-Pakistan', in H. Spodek. and D. M. Srinivasan, eds. Urban Form and Meaning in South Asia. Washington DC: National Gallery of Art. Studies in the History of Art, 31. Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts Symposium Papers 15: 69–81. * 1995 The archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The emergence of cities and states, (ed.), Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, xvii-317. * 1995 Excavations at Malvan; report of the collaboration of the Archaeological Survey of India and Cambridge University in 1970, on the Gujarat Plain (with J. P. Joshi) New Delhi, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India 92, pp vii, 117. * 1996 Coningham R.A.E., Allchin F.R., Batt C.M. & Lucy D. Passage to India? Anuradhapura and the Early Use of the Brahmi Script. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 6(1): 73–97. * 1997 A Source-book of Indian Archaeology (with D.K. Chakrabarti), New Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, Vol. 2: Settlements, Technology and Trade, pp 708. * 1997 South Asian archaeology, 1971–1991 : index of the proceedings of the biennal conferences of the European Association of South Asian Archaeologists (formerly, Association of South Asian Archaeologists in Western Europe), (compiler). Naples: Indices, Istituto Universitario Orientale. Dipartimento di Studi Aisatici; 3, pp 109. * 1998 'The interface of archaeology and history'. Man and Environment 23, (1): 19–36. * 1999 Ancient Buddhist Scrolls from Gandhara: The British Library Kharosthi Fragments (with Richard Salomon and Mark Barnard), London, British Library. * 1999 'Preface', in R.A.E. Coningham, ed. Anuradhapura: The British–Sri Lankan Excavations at Anuradhapura Salagha Watta 2. Volume 1: The Site. Oxford: Archaeopress for the Society for South Asian Studies (The British Academy): (BAR international series 824; Society for South Asian Studies monograph no. 3): ix–xi. * 2000 The Ancient India and Iran Trust Library. Second, revised edition. Cambridge : Ancient India & Iran Trust Library. * 2003 A Source-book of Indian Archaeology (with D.K. Chakrabarti), New Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, vol. 3: Prehistoric Roots of Religious Beliefs, Human Remains, The First Steps in Historical Archaeology: Sculpture, Architecture, Coins and Inscriptions. pp 291. * 2006 'Inscriptions and graffiti' in R.A.E. Coningham, ed. Anuradhapura: The British – Sri Lankan Excavations at Anuradhapura Salgaha Watta: Volume 2 The Artefacts. Oxford: Archaeopress for the Society for South Asian Studies (The British Academy): 431–450.Joint publications
Allchin, Bridget, and F. Raymond Allchin 1968. The Birth of Indian Civilization: India and Pakistan Before 500 B.C. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. Allchin, Bridget, and F. Raymond Allchin 1982. The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Allchin, Bridget, and F. Raymond Allchin 1997. Origins of a Civilization: The Prehistory and Early Archaeology of South Asia. New Delhi: Viking. Allchin, F. Raymond, and Bridget Allchin 2012. From the Oxus to Mysore in 1951: The start of a great partnership in Indian Archaeology. Kilkerran: Hardinge SimpoleReports for UNESCO and UNDP
1969 Cultural Tourism in India: its scope and development with special reference to the monumental heritage, UNESCO, pp104. 1969 Report on the Lumbini Development Project (with K. Matsushita), UNDP.References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allchin, F. Raymond 1923 births 2010 deaths Military personnel from London English archaeologists British Army personnel of World War II Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of Churchill College, Cambridge Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Academics of SOAS University of London People from Harrow, London Royal Corps of Signals soldiers 20th-century archaeologists 20th-century English writers 20th-century English male writers British people in colonial India