4 The Phenomenology of Neighborhoods in the Early Historic Period of the Indian Subcontinent (3rd Century BCE – 4th Century CE)

Neighborhoods are places of social interdependence expressed in material forms of proximity represented by closely packed households, pathways, and open spaces. Archaeological remains provide the opportunity to analyze neighborhoods as the physical locale of urban residence that included daily routines of eating, sleeping, and self-care; regular acquisition of provisions; and interactions with other people. However, the experiences of neighborhood interaction were not unique to the urban form. In the Indian subcontinent in the mid-first millennium BCE, there were three configurations that brought people together into crowded physical and social spaces, each of which provided the opportunity for repeated, standardized, and routinized mutual interdependence: urban settlements, religious pilgrimage centers, and army encampments.