MAHSA Project

A special thank you to organiser/speaker Azadeh Vafadari and speakers Dr Stefania Merlo, Dr Kuili Suganya, Dr Arnau Garcia-Molsosa, Rosie Campbell, Jack Tomaney, and to all the project members who contributed their time and helped make this a success. (5/5)

We are grateful to our attendees for joining us and staying engaged throughout, including those fasting or joining from late time zones. Your commitment made this first large-scale interactive online training possible. (4/5)

The second half of the workshop shifted from discussion to practice, where attendees were introduced to QGIS and guided through applying this software to archaeological data. Clinics were offered in English, Urdu, Hindi, and French, looking at specific GIS applications in South Asia & Africa. (3/5)

The morning began with critical reflections on current applications and challenges of GIS, followed by insightful talks and case studies that demonstrated GIS in action, from hydrology and landscape modelling to public engagement through digital story maps. (2/5)

This week MAHSA & MAEASaM hosted a successful workshop covering the application, history, and challenges of GIS in archaeology. 280 participants joined us from over 30 countries, bringing together an international community interested in strengthening the use of GIS in archaeological research. (1/5)

Join conversation

Join online:
teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-joi...

We’ll be hearing from:

Sumedha Chakravarthy
Notes from the Field: Uncertain Immersion in the Political City

Saba Aslam
Interactions within within Karachi’s water infrastructure nexus

Join our next South Asia: Women in the Field meeting!

🕑 Thursday, February 26th, 2-4 pm (GMT)
📍 McDonald Institute Seminar Room, Downing Site, Cambridge

"..Under the gnarled vann (Salvadora oleoides) trees and piles on the graves, we were able to find broken pottery and figurines from around the 15th-19th C. In some cases, if we were very lucky enough, we would find the finest of steatite disc beads dating from the Harappan period."

"...Using data from Mughal et al. (1996) and historic maps, our aim was to document mound sites and other interesting features. Through this process we were able to see a vast and vibrant landscape of continued settlement where archaeological sites are seamlessly incorporated into regular life..."

In today’s #MappingMonday we join MAHSA team members Afifa Khan & Babar Hussain as they survey Nankana Sahib in Pakistan:

“Nankana Sahib is a peculiarly shaped district, not far from Lahore, and is renowned for being a part of the Sikh pilgrimage route in Pakistani Punjab..."

The first episode of South Asia: Women in the Field is now available on YouTube.

Join Malini Roy, Professor M.B. Rajani and Vaneshree Vidyarthi as they discuss the conservation of archaeological heritage using ground-breaking geospatial methods.

🔗 Tune in here!
youtu.be/IolMTRC0zPc?...

This digitised repository marks a major step towards the democratisation of cultural heritage and cartographic archives in the region.

🔗 Learn how to use the database:
www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/explore...

🔗 Start your search today:
databasemahsa.org/en/search
(3/3)

In collaboration with Cambridge University Library, you can now explore:

🌏 Geospatial data for 1,245 maps across South Asia
🔎 480 digitised historic map sheets, freely accessible via the Cambridge Digital Library (2/3)

🗺️ Historic maps of South Asia – now at your fingertips

The MAHSA Project is thrilled to share our open-access search portal for historic Survey of India maps! (1/3)

Afifa provides great insights about the MAHSA project and her important work within the team. Tune in now for an engaging conversation about working in archaeology and what we are up to at MAHSA.

Listen: careerinruins.com?page_id=29
Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLAt...

New podcast episode 🎙️

This week MAHSA’s Afifa Khan joins the Career in Ruins Podcast with Derek Pitman & Lawrence Shaw. Afifa shares her story as an archaeologist working in the UK & Pakistan, discussing vital topics such as cross-cultural collaboration and the empowerment of women in archaeology.

Max is using Earth observation data and machine-learning methods to identify potential archaeological mounds in South Asia. The models being tested by Max and our BSC partners are crucial to the project’s remote sensing and ground-truthing efforts. Great to have you on board, Max!

Introducing Max Fancourt! 🤝

Joining us from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Max is developing mound detection models to facilitate the documentation and protection of heritage sites in India and Pakistan.

Introducing Dr Anisha Singh! 🤝

Anisha joined the team last year as a postdoctoral research associate and has been supporting vital project activities in India, such as our field survey of Ludhiana. The project has benefited greatly from her knowledge and experience. Thanks for joining us, Anisha!

With reference to legacy data and historic maps, MAHSA members like Babar can work in collaboration with local stakeholders to investigate potential heritage sites and verify what is visible today.

A warm welcome to Babar – we are grateful to have gained your expertise!

Introducing Babar Hussain! 🤝

Today we're spotlighting Research Assistant Babar, who recently joined the MAHSA team in collaboration with the University of the Punjab. Babar is supporting the project in Pakistan, including ground-truthing archaeological sites in the field.

Published open access! 🚨
The MAHSA Project & Partners present a new article in the Journal of Field Archaeology, exploring the Survey of India’s often incidental recording of archaeological sites and our ongoing work to document this heritage.

Read the full article now:
doi.org/10.1080/0093...

This week the Cambridge team attended the Secret Maps exhibition at the British Library. We enjoyed exploring the fascinating history of covert cartography, and we’re especially grateful to curator Nick Dykes for introducing us to the collection.

Each festival reflects local crops, climate patterns, and land use, telling all sorts of stories across the map. Despite regional differences, the consistent emphasis on nature, labour, time, and community creates a seasonal map celebrating both commonality and difference across India.

At this time of year, India celebrates harvest festivals spanning the whole country. From plain to delta to farmland, each festival marks the same agricultural milestone through region-specific traditions. Viewed through the lens of mapping, India’s harvest season becomes a living cultural atlas.

Our georeferenced historic map was published in 1912, even before the station was constructed. This illustrates why we can’t rely on a single source to document the evolving heritage landscape.

For our first #MappingMonday of 2026, we’re highlighting a recent field survey conducted by Afifa Khan (University of Cambridge) & Dr Samia Anwar (University of Chakwal). The MAHSA team recorded various ‘British Colonial’ buildings, including the ‘Old Railway Station’, abandoned in 1993.

📢 Positions open for application!

Are you trained in GIS and remote sensing, with an interest in archaeological and heritage research? Join the MAHSA research team by applying here:

www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...
&
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

We enjoyed two days of workshops, presentations and computational conversations at the Henry Wellcome Building.

A huge thank you to our conference contributors, delegates, and organising team! (2/2)