Aligarh: The Archaeological Section of the Department of History at Aligarh Muslim University participated in a 3-day International Museum Expo-2023 held on May 18-20 at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, under the aegis of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the museum gallery, with G. Krishna Reddy, Minister of Culture.

The antiquities displayed at Musa Dakri booth no. 25 allotted to the Archaeological Section of AMU consisted of some of the archaeological artefacts and relics discovered during various excavations, especially from Atranjikheda, (Etah district) Lal Qila (district Bulandshahr), the two well-known protohistoric sites, undertaken by the late archaeologist and historian RC Gaur, Professor at the Centre of Advanced Study, Department of History, AMU.

Some of the other distinguishing art pieces on display included a broken image of a lady, a gorge depicting a lady, a stone piece depicting a lady, a terracotta lion, a well-moulded terracotta lady head, a beautiful terracotta head, a terracotta incense-burner, terracotta design block for the printing of fabric, terracotta ram, terracotta rattle, terracotta birds and terracotta bangle, terracotta boat, terracotta and bone, Brahmi Script seals, Iron Plough Share, Hoe, Sickle, Arrowhead, a bone arrow-head retaining part of iron-shaft and copper objects bangle, copper-celt of a copper-hoard having engraved Star-Marks and anthropomorphic figure, a pair of copper frogs, finally setting the question of knowledge of iron by 1200-600 BC.

Organized by the Ministry of Culture, the objective of the event was to initiate a holistic conversation on museums to enable them to evolve as cultural centres that play a pivotal role in India’s cultural diplomacy in a year where India holds the G20 Presidency, while also keeping the International Council on Museum’s theme ‘museums, sustainability and well-being’.

A grand inauguration by the Prime Minister was followed by panel discussions and master classes led by renowned experts, and museum professionals, while experts from other countries made virtual presentations of their invaluable collections and expressed their views on museums and museum-related issues. Some of the themes of panel discussions were heritage conservation, conservation of historic monuments and artefacts, preventive conservation of paintings and textiles and other art pieces.

The AMU team was led by Professor Gulfishan Khan, Chairperson and Coordinator, Centre of Advanced Study, Department of History, with the assistance of Dr Vinod Singh and Afroz Jamal, Assistant Archaeologist; Saleem Ahmad, Senior Curator and Shoeb Ahmad, Senior Photographer.