An Indus Monkey Figurine
March 31st, 2019
Of all the objects in the National Museum of Pakistan's Indus Gallery in Karachi, none quite so grabs your attention with its innate character as this tiny faience monkey from Mohenjo-daro.
Visits to ancient Indus objects in museums on three continents.
At the National Museum, Delhi
March 19th, 2019
On a recent visit to Delhi, I found myself free for two hours and made my way in a rickshaw from Jama Masjid to the National Museum. It was a Sunday afternoon. After paying the entrance fee and breathlessly arriving at the Harappan Civilisation doorway, I found that it was closed for renovations! Momentarily dispirited, it turned out that there was another entrance and much of the gallery was still open – disaster averted.
The British Museum's New Ancient Indus Exhibit
December 13th, 2017
Photographs of the new Indus section and an exclusive interview with Curator Daniela de Simone on how it all came together.
Chanhiyun Jo Daro at the Met (II)
September 18th, 2017
It may be hard to imagine that the best places to see artefacts of the ancient town of Chanhiyun Jo Daro [Chanhu Daro] are along the eastern seaboard of the United States. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York have a number of pieces from a US-funded team the worked at the site in 1935-36, led by Mohenjo daro excavator E.J.H. Mackay [see Dorothy Mackay, Finds at Chanhu-daro]. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston lent some items to the Metropolitan which I was fortunate enough to see in the fall of 2016 [A Visit to the Met I].
It is over 7,000 miles
The Dilmun Bioarchaeology Project
July 1st, 2017
A really nice and well-written blog entry about the analysis of bones and other material from ancient Dilmun [Bahrain], before we even knew where the civilization lay.
An Awesome Indus Exhibition Catalogue (free!)
March 12th, 2017
Rediscovering Harappa | Through the Five Elements, A Special Exhibition at the Lahore Museum is an awesome catalogue that speaks to the process of coming to grips with Indus artefacts at the Lahore Museum in 2016.
Sumatran Ship Cloths
January 28th, 2017
A recent exhibition of Sumatran (Indonesian) ceremonial hangings in cotton and silk from the 19th century at the De Young Museum in San Francisco made me wonder whether such textiles were also in vogue in another maritime culture, the ancient Indus, whose boats would not seem out of place in these examples.
A Carnelian Feast at the British Museum
January 3rd, 2017
On a recent visit to London, I decided to have another look at the British Museum's handful of Indus objects. They are usually displayed – with little celebration, given their importance, like the first seal ever found at Harappa . . .
A Visit to the Metropolitan's Indus Collection
October 23rd, 2016
On a recent trip to New York, I was able to get away for an afternoon to explore the ancient Indus collection at that battleship of a museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I found the Indus collection split between two rooms, 234 in the Asian Art and 403 in the Ancient Near Eastern Art sections, with a nice long walk in between.
