Prof. Daniel T. Potts honored by Indiana University

Prof. Daniel T. Potts was recently honored by Indiana University as the Program in Ancient Studies - Spring 2019 Distinguished Lecturer and as the 2019 Jean and Denis Sinor Faculty Fellow. On April 8th he presented "A walk with the water buffalo: Zoological peregrinations from the Indus Valley to Mesopotamia" as part of the Ancient Studies Distinguished Lecturer Series. On April 9th he presented his lecture “Horse and Pasture in Pre-Islamic Iran” as part of their Jean and Denis Sinor Faculty Fellowship Lecture series.

"A walk with the water buffalo: Zoological peregrinations from the Indus Valley to Mesopotamia"

Since the first proper excavations of archaeological sites belonging to the Harappan civilization in South Asia during the early 20th century, generations of scholars have discussed the evidence for contact between the Indus Valley and southern Mesopotamia during the late 3rd millennium BC. This talk focuses on one piece of evidence that was identified by 19th century zoologists and their 20th century successors as a feature in need of explanation, namely, the presence of the water buffalo, commonly thought to have originated in South Asia, in what is today southern Iraq. This problem will be examined using a wide range of zoological, archaeological, historical and art historical data, spanning over six millennia, with some surprising results.

“Horse and Pasture in Pre-Islamic Iran”

In 1972 Denis Sinor published an article entitled 'Horse and Pasture in Inner Asian history.' That study, largely concerned with Inner Asia during the period of Mongol expansion, was the inspiration for a closer look at the origins and use of the horse on the Iranian plateau, and associated problems of equine management dealt with by Denis Sinor, such as the necessity of identifying grazing and pasturage, especially for cavalry. The lecture will examine a wide range of sources from prehistory to the early modern period.