Day: December 28, 2022

Lahore, December 28, 2022 (PPI-OT):Dr. Muhammad Hameed, Chairman Department of Archaeology, University of the Punjab was invited by the prestigious and historic academic institutions of the United Kingdom During a recent visit to England, Dr. Muhammad Hameed visited The University of Oxford and had a very productive meeting with Professor Prof Peter Stewart, Director, Classical Art Research Centre, Professor of Ancient Art, University of Oxford/ Wolfson College, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies

Professor Pete has been working on the project. “Gandharan Connections” and has organized four annual workshops focusing on different aspects of Gandharan Studies. Dr. Muhammad Hameed also participated in the recent workshop and presented his research work on the topic “The Lost Buddhist Heritage of Gandhara”. During the recent meeting, Dr. Muhammad Hameed briefed Professor Peter about the developments of the Department of Archaeology and discussed future collaboration between both institutions.

Dr. Muhammad Hameed visited Department of History, Religions and Philosophies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and met Professor Dr Peter Flügel, Chair, Centre of Jaina Studies. At SOAS, Dr, Hameed delivered a talk on his research about Jainism in Pakistan.

The title of the talk was, Insights into the Jain Archaeology, Art and Architecture of Pakistan: Lahore Chapter. The research work explored and highlighted the potential of Jainism and Jain heritage in Pakistan. In the follow-up session, both institutions agreed to collaborate and work on joint ventures.

In the last phase, Dr. Muhammad Hameed visited Department of Archaeology, The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge and attended Three days’ workshop on ARCHAEOLOGY AND HERITAGE IN PAKISTAN: RECENT WORK AND ADVANCES IN THE FIELD Organized by the Department. Dr. Hameed talked about Recent Developments in the Mapping of Archaeological Heritage – An Overview of our Survey of Lahore.

The visit to Cambridge was in connection with the joint project The Mapping of Archaeological Heritage in South Asia (MAHSA). The project will document the endangered archaeology and cultural heritage of the Indus River Basin and the surrounding areas and publish this information in an Open Access geospatial database.

This database will be a collaborative output that will serve as the primary mapping resource and research repository for the archaeological and endangered cultural heritage of the Indus River Basin and the surrounding areas.

It will aspire to become sustainable by being the default management database for local heritage stakeholders. Professor Dr Cameron Petrie Reader in South Asian and Iranian Archaeology, Fellow of Trinity College, Department of Archaeology. University of Cambridge is the Project leader and Dr. Muhammad Hameed, from Department of Archaeology, University of the Punjab is one of the international collaborators of MAHSA project.

For more information, contact:
Registrar,
University of the Punjab
Quaid-e-Azam Campus, Lahore, Pakistan
Tel: +92-42-99231102
Fax: +92-42-99231103
E-Mail: registrar@pu.edu.pk
Website: http://pu.edu.pk/

Lahore, December 28, 2022 (PPI-OT):The Department of Archaeology, University of the Punjab in collaboration with the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research University of Cambridge, UK arranged a 3 Day Online QGIS Training Session organized under Project MAHSA – Mapping of Archaeological Heritage in South Asia in which Faculty, Students and Departmental Staff were engaged by the Training Coordinator Ms Azadeh Vafadari, Jack Tomaney and Piet Gerrits as the main instructors.

The Departmental team was enabled to experience a beginner-level QGIS Introductory Training in archaeology and Heritage work. It included the:

Concepts of QGIS, How to find Geographic Data and Historical Maps leading to their Georeferencing with digitization and tracing of Potential Archaeological sites and features by comparison with today’s Satellite Imaging. The overall session was shadowed under the use of different tutorials additionally with the informational presentation sessions for the participants where they were free to talk through and ask questions.

In the meantime, the students learned the use of Vector to identify a feature, Symbology, and Key Cartographic Elements to interpret Geographic data, key types, and file formats used in Quantum GIS.

The software was made easy to use in projections and coordinate systems and most importantly its practical application in Archaeology – capturing, understanding, and managing spatial and archaeological data. The areas of Punjab and Sindh remained of special interest throughout understanding the of landscape archaeology.

Participants were efficiently taught about the old Indian Historic Maps and to see if the same sites were present in today’s satellite imagery.

On the fun side, the play of assigning colours to different features or sites played an interesting role.

Technically, the last day of the session was for the official map-making individually with proper scale setting adding labels, tracing coordinates etc.

This fruitful and productive session resulted in an opportunity to make a step forward from traditional methods in Archaeology to more advanced ones.

At the end of the session, Dr. Hameed Chairman Archaeology Department, faculty, staff, and students shared warm gestures while thanking them wholeheartedly for their excellent coordination, as if erasing the communication barrier, their patience, and enthusiasm in guiding thoroughly.

All the participants were equally impressed, and cordially thanked their whole team looking forward to having more interactive opportunities for learning in the future.

For more information, contact:
Registrar,
University of the Punjab
Quaid-e-Azam Campus, Lahore, Pakistan
Tel: +92-42-99231102
Fax: +92-42-99231103
E-Mail: registrar@pu.edu.pk
Website: http://pu.edu.pk/