The Journal
The public is invited to the next meeting of the San Juan Basin Archaeological Society on Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. at the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College.
Geri Hockfield Malandra will present “The Ancient Sites of Ellora: A Microcosm of South Asia’s Archaeological Past.” There will be a social at 6:30 p.m. in the CSWS foyer.
Malandra has been studying India since the early 1970s. As an undergraduate, she pursued an interdisciplinary degree in archaeology and anthropology at Carleton College in Minnesota. She studied with Elden Johnson, the state archaeologist, who was one of the first American scholars to collect and document the middle-Paleolithic chopper culture of Pakistan’s Swat Valley. Her first encounter with ancient South Asian material was cataloging stone-age choppers in Johnson’s archive at the University of Minnesota.
Her interdisciplinary studies later moved her toward ancient history, languages, and art of the Near East and India. She studied Sumerian and Sanskrit, preparing for research in both regions. Ultimately, her research focused on the ancient historic era of India. She received her Ph.D. in Ancient Studies from the University of Minnesota, where she taught Ancient Near Eastern History and World History. She is the author of “Unfolding a Mandala: The Buddhist Cave Temples of Ellora” and numerous articles and presentations on ancient South Asian coins and Buddhist art.
See sjbas.org for more information.
