Micropolitics and the Archaeological Study of Tekkalakota (MAST) is a program based in Ballari district, Karnataka, and is designed to investigate the emergence of iron metallurgy and written script at Tekkalakota. These two profoundly transformative technologies mark the transition between major cultural periods in many regions of the Old World, and are often associated with additional developments such as agricultural intensification, increasing political complexity, and heightened forms of social division. This presentation will review the history of research at Tekkalakota and outline plans for future work. These plans include a three-year program of excavation, documentation, and dissemination to track developing pyrotechnical capacity and symbolic expression from the 3rd millennium BCE, and make a link to changing patterns of production, consumption and ecology. A developing initiative is to apply these results towards a local effort to tackle the effects of climate change and environmental degradation. In this way, our team’s scholarship highlights the potential for archaeology to assist in addressing modern day problems.
