Dig, discover and experience a 2,500-year-old civilisation in a Gujarat museum

The depository conjoins an existent excavated site, wherever 1 tin spot the remains of a 2,500-year-old past town. To support visitors engaged from the museum’s ticketing and waiting lounge itself, a sensor-based level representation keeps projecting a self-guided virtual circuit of this Mehsana territory town, besides the birthplace of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Real excavation sites and replicas

Of the museum’s 13,500 quadrate metres, an country of 3,400 sq m comprises existent excavation sites: visitors tin spot the remains of an existent fort partition and the existent archaeological site, located adjacent door. In the museum, visitors tin locomotion connected a solid level installed implicit a replica of the tract adjacent door. This replica includes a conception of the thoroughfare showing however the municipality and its activities evolved. The depository besides contains a recreated brahman sheri (a constrictive lane) astatine Ghaskol, a tiny Buddhist monastery that was excavated recently. To recreate the sheri successful the museum, 2 layers of terracotta bricks person been stacked successful the mode arsenic they were recovered during the excavation.

For the experiential portion of the tour, a medium-sized excavation pit has been created wrong the museum. Here, visitors are encouraged to usage the disposable archaeological tools “to excavate existent objects”, too trying their hands connected the mortar and pestle, and the miniature chromatic grinder.

The existent excavated tract that is connected with the depository done a walkway for visitors. (Express photograph by Bhupendra)Rana

Besides replicas of marker coins recovered from the excavated site, which tin beryllium traced connected insubstantial with pencils, visitors tin besides usage clay and moulds to marque their ain terracotta pots and ticker them cook digitally. The depository besides has activities for children. At a partition section, they tin make paintings utilizing watercolours and capable enactment drawings; successful the ammunition assemblage section, they tin lick a jigsaw puzzle; they tin besides plan their ain bangles connected a integer surface and consciousness them “digitally” connected their hand; and they tin besides usage ample replicas of beads made of stone, solid and terracotta to marque their ain necklaces, among different activities.

“Integrated with an experiential walkway implicit the successful situ excavation site, this is the first-of-its-kind depository successful India. The thought down it was to marque idiosyncratic visiting Vadnagar recognize the past and value of this town, which is implicit 2,500 years old,” Pankaj Sharma, director, Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Gujarat, tells The Indian Express.

To recreate the past of Vadnagar, the depository has 500 spots with audio usher sensors, 8 main films, 30 sub films and assorted audio-visual galleries.

The remains of an existent fort partition are a portion of the Vadnagar museum. (Express photograph by Bhupendra Rana)

Director Sharma adds, “Using show and technology, the depository attempts to supply an exploration of the city’s improvement done interpretations of events implicit time. This includes examining practices similar h2o management, the content successful the portion being a ineffable abstraction and the important relation of Nagar Brahmins, among others.”

Galleries and experiences

While replicas assistance showcase the city’s evolution, implicit 6,000 existent artifacts person besides been displayed successful the museum’s galleries.

“The practice of taste periods (at the museum) involves illustrating assorted aspects, specified arsenic municipality lifestyles, beliefs, governmental situations, societal operation and noteworthy events, arsenic gleaned from archaeological and humanities discoveries. Excavated artefacts, epigraphic evidence, existing monuments and built environments service arsenic communicative elements too. The city’s ongoing maturation and translation are conveyed done horizontally stacked layers, with artefacts astatine the halfway of the curation process,” says Grace Ann Varkey, superintending archaeologist, Gandhinagar, and the museum’s curator incharge.

The depository has 7 galleries and experiences based connected thematic frameworks: Reception and Orientation Gallery, Introduction Gallery, City Gallery, Belief Gallery, Lifestyle and Economic Gallery, Future Gallery and Introduction to Excavation Gallery.

The Introduction Gallery starts with a 270-degree projection show. The surface past opens — similar a doorway — taking visitors to the adjacent level, which has been designed to assistance them recognize artefact highlights successful narration to India and Gujarat. At the City Gallery, visitors acquisition a chronological communicative portraying the improvement of Vadnagar and its improvement via artefacts, replicas, installations, artworks, h2o absorption systems, streets, walls, excavation sites, monuments and more.

The remains of an existent fort partition are a portion of the Vadnagar museum. (Express photograph by Bhupendra Rana)

The excavated tract assemblage is dedicated solely to the Amba Ghat excavations, wherever a portion of the existent excavation has been recreated for visitors. The Belief Systems Gallery narrates the town’s spiritual landscape, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Islam, done related artefacts, rituals and existing spiritual structures. The Lifestyle and Economy Gallery depicts the town’s lifestyle, economical and commercialized activities, and their improvement implicit 2,500 years. This assemblage includes subsections connected agriculture practices, carnal husbandry, pottery and exertion evolution, planetary commercialized linkages and coin, terracotta, shell, glass, chromatic and ivory objects.

“These sections connection visitors immersive experiences, which see a assortment of installations, artefacts, replicas, unrecorded workshops, 3D projections, set-ups based connected AR and VR (augmented world and virtual reality) and interactive installations,” says depository curator incharge Varkey.

The Introduction to Excavation Gallery establishes the discourse of the excavation tract by utilizing a 3-D scaled exemplary of the excavation and installations connected cardinal findings. The assemblage besides introduces visitors to archaeological processes, tools and techniques.

The depository besides includes 3 polished alloy sculptures by Vibhor Sogani, an Indian creator and decorator known for his large-scale nationalist creation installations. While 1 of these sculptures is wrong the museum, 2 others person been installed successful the gardens.

Talking astir the remaining galleries, Siddha Shah, superintending archaeologist, Rajkot, says, “The Future Gallery contemplates the aboriginal of Vadnagar by emphasising our accepted cognition systems, resilient practices, and the value of our contiguous actions successful the discourse of aboriginal times and generations. Marking the decision of the depository experience, visitors are encouraged to lend to gathering a wall, some digitally and physically.”