Monday, October 14, 2024 – 5pm, Foster 103
George Michell, Founder-Trustee, Deccan Heritage Foundation
Trained at the University of Chicago as an anthropologist with a special interest in prehistoric Native American sites in New Mexico and Arizona, the late Dr. John M. Fritz brought an entirely new perspective to South Asian urban studies when he became the first American archaeologist to survey the ruins of Hampi Vijayanagara. Together with Dr. George Michell, Fritz directed a team of volunteer architects and archaeologists to investigate the meaning of Hampi’s city plan. In this talk, Michell will discuss Fritz’s innovative conclusion, based on more than twenty years of fieldwork during the 1980s and 1990s, that the Hindu god Rama dominated the layout of Vijayanagara’s Royal Center by acting as a mediator in the everyday activities and ceremonial life of the Vijayanagara rulers.