MUMBAI: In a rare sight, subject experts from universities across India were seen huddled in small groups to prepare a presentation about their day’s learnings at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) on Thursday. They had to reflect on how different ancient civilizations — from India, Iran, Egypt and other regions — looked like; what was their natural environment; the kinds of materials available at the time in their respective geographies and how they used them to build their homes and cities.
The 26 historians, archaeologists, art historians, coin experts, from across 24 universities including University of Mumbai; D D Kosambi School of Social Sciences and Behavioural Studies, Goa; Ashoka University, Sonipat; and others, are in Mumbai for four days, to attend the University Academic Programme, designed by CSMVS and Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, part of the education initiative for the ongoing Networks of the Past exhibition at the gallery.
“At the core of the programme lies the ability to tell histories and stories in a very different way than how histories are written from texts. This is achieved by placing objects at the centre of it,” said Neal Spencer, director of research and deputy director of collections, Fitzwilliam Museum.
“Whether it is a sculpture of the priest king of the Indus Valley Civilization or the cat mummy from Egypt, these aren’t hearsay. They are real, surviving pieces of the time gone by,” added Vaidehi Savnal, assistant director of education and public programmes, CSMVS.
More crucially, the programme seeks to show different ways of looking at objects and how they can hold different interpretations, sometimes even contradictory to what we know. Take for instance, an Egyptian granary. “Yes, it’s about grain management, but the human figure in the loin cloth tells us he is not an elite, that labourers were exploited or there was politics of power in the granary,” explained Spencer.
To encourage such informed inquiry, the programme is divided into three broad themes. Day one explored the ancient civilizations’ natural world. Day two will be dedicated to how imagery was used to project power. On day three, the programme will discuss what objects can tell us about movement of ideas and technologies across civilisations. All the discussions are helmed by region experts from Egypt, Greece, Iran, China, UK and India.
On Thursday, Qin Cao, curator of Chinese collections, Oriental Museum, in Durham University, presented a pot with a narrow opening, which was earlier believed to store water, but new research has revealed that the people of the Banpo civilization (that flourished along the Yellow River valley, in present day Xian, China) fermented liquor in it. The pot, hence also tells us that the people then had enough surplus of agricultural produce to make liquor. “As science develops, we discover a lot more about different sites,” she said during her lecture.
“These discussions make you want to ask questions, to think about other possibilities of how an object would have served differently than what we know,” said Sheena V R, assistant professor, department of archaeology, University of Kerala.
Perhaps a similar pot from Harappa could also have been used to store liquor? “To learn how to explore different narratives through objects is interesting,” said participant Juhi Sadiya, assistant professor, department of museology at Indian Institute of Heritage, Noida. Her work focuses on how objects are used to teach histories outside museum settings. She has participated in the programme to find newer and better ways of storytelling through objects. “Who better to teach than teachers to have future generations engage in such inquiries,” said Sabyasachi Mukherjee, director of CSMVS.
The exercise is also crucial given our present time. “As increasingly statements are being made without any factual basis, it is important to provide tools about how arguments are made, recognising whether there might be any deception to them,” said Spencer.