From December 2000 to February 2001 Archaeos conducted a project mapping and analyzing the historical uses of urban space at Vijayanagara, the capital of the southern Indian empire of the same name during the 14th ­ 16th centuries. The project was co-directed by Archaeos’ David Gimbel and by John M. Fritz of the Vijayanagara Research Project (VRP). The initial two month field season focused on documenting structural remains along the area known as the ‘North Ridge’ a topographical feature more than two kilometers long and about half a kilometer wide, that separates the ‘Royal’ and the ‘Sacred’ precincts of the city’s urban core. Additional project members included Andrew K. Y. Leung (Assistant Director), Ian Stell (Assistant Surveyor) and Jessica Glass (Cinematographer). In New York, Stephanie Tayengco and Paul Zimmerman were both responsible for writing and modifying different portions of computer scripts designed to manipulate and import data from the surveying software to the CAD program.

The Central City of Vijayanagara originally consisted of a fortified royal residential quarter and a series of bordering temple-centered religious communities that occupied an area of approximately 20 square kilometers. The larger Metropolitan Region surrounding the Central City extended to an area of approximately 550 square kilometers. Although Vijayanagara is a site of extraordinary cultural and religious significance, its preservation is currently under pressure from various forces including tourism, farming, and a growing local population. Vijayanagara is a UNESCO World Heritage Site — the first such site in India to be officially declared endangered.

Although now denuded of the majority of structures that once covered most of its area, the North Ridge’s significance has long been indicated by the fact that one of Vijayanagara’s most important roads cuts directly through it connecting the Royal Center with the rest of the Central City. The North Ridge is lined with temples and other structures including palaces and elite complexes which were protected by walls and fortified gateways. Fortunately, remains of structural walls are still highly visible along many of the slopes on the North Ridge despite the fact many ancient building materials have washed down from the surrounding hillsides and now obscure many of the original buildings and other features along the valley floor.

On the ridge, roads, paths, small temples, several palaces, other elite complexes, and structures of unknown function are indicated, not only by the remains of rubble walls, but by numerous other diagnostic features cut into the rock — anchor holes, door pivots, and areas that have been chiseled away to function as wall and column seatings. Nearby rock outcrops also bear remaining traces of numerous domestic features including mortars, ties, sockets for wooden structures, and rock cut game boards. During its first field season at Vijayanagara, Archaeos’ team concentrated on the southwestern end of this ridge — an area chosen because of the high density of building remains there, including at least one palace-like structure visible on the surface. By the end of the season, the team had mapped an area of approximately 40,000 square meters.

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Project Background