How does an 11,000 year old stone become a symbol of a goddess? 

Episode Transcript

Follow this link for an annotated episode transcript.

Teaching Guide

You can use this episode for classroom discussions on ethnographic analogies in archaeology and the archaeology of religion and religious belief. 

Further reading on the Baghor Stone

How has popular media covered this topic?

• An article from The Times of India

• An article from Indrosphere

• The Baghor Stone Wikipedia page

Using Ethnographic Analogies in Archaeology

• This episode briefly discusses how archaeologists used interactions with local people to interpret the meaning behind the stone platforms and the ritual platform at Baghor 1.  You can use this episode as an entry point for further discussions about the use of ethnographic analogies in archaeology.   

• Some suggested readings: 

  • A classic text on ethnographic analogy:  Wobst, H. Martin. “The Archaeo-Ethnology of Hunter-Gatherers or the Tyranny of the Ethnographic Record in Archaeology.” American Antiquity 43, no. 2 (1978): 303–9. https://doi.org/10.2307/279256.

• Adrian Currie, Ethnographic analogy, the comparative method, and archaeological special pleading,

• Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 55 (2016): 84-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2015.08.010.

  • This article takes an ethnoarchaeological approach to the area near the Baghor 1 stone and asks if you can see continuity in ritual traditions. 

    • Chattopadhyaya, Indrani. "Living Tradition: A Study of Prehistoric Rock-paintings and Indigenous Art from District Sonbhadra, Southern Uttar Pradesh, India." Athens Journal of Humanities and Arts 3 (4)(2016):251-270 DOI: 10.30958/ajha.3.4.3

The Archaeology of Ritual and Religion

This episode can also tie into broader discussions about the archaeology of ritual and religion.  There are a few general resources on this topic: 

• Archaeology, Ritual, and Religion by Timothy Insoll

• The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology Ritual and Religion by Timothy Insoll (ed)

  • See this chapter:  Sugandhi, Namita, and Kathleen Morrison, ' Archaeology of Hinduism', in Timothy Insoll (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion (2011; online edn, Oxford Academic, 18 Sept. 2012), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199232444.013.0058, accessed 13 Aug. 2026.

• Beyond Belief: The Archaeology of Religion and Ritual. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 21: 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1551-8248.2012.01033.x

• The Archaeology of Ritual by Evangelos Kyriakidis

  • Lars Fogelin's chapter in this edited volume is a good introductory reference and his Academia.edu page has other examples of his work, which has focused on the archaeology of Buddhism in South Asia. 

• Michael Willis, The Archaeology of Hindu Ritual: Temples and the Establishment of the Gods (Cambridge: University Press, 2014; first published 2009).