''There are many missing pieces in the jigsaw puzzle that is ancient India, but those we have yield a rich tapestry.''

The oldest surviving love graffiti on a cave wall immortalizing an intimate bond in the third century BCE; charred seeds and chewed animal bones that provide evidence of a peoples'' food obsessions; architectural minutiae that point to the alarming regression of a civilization''s potty habits; intriguing sculptures that reveal myriad facets of the human-animal relationship...

In Time Pieces, award-winning historian Nayanjot Lahiri whimsically sifts through intricate clues left behind by the early inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent - in plaques and inscriptions, fragments of jewellery, bones and tools, poetry, art and pottery - to reveal to us our ancient land in all its variety, splendour, complexity and contradictions.

Sparkling with wit and reflective of a scholar''s keen and curious energy, this delightful volume seamlessly connects the past to the present and a civilization to the world beyond.