Stroll over an archaeological web site, really feel the earth and dig out items from “historical past” — is what a tour of the Vadnagar Archaeological Experiential Museum in Gujarat’s Vadnagar guarantees guests.
The museum, which is able to open to the general public on February 1, was formally inaugurated by Union Residence Minister Amit Shah on January 16. On-line bookings are anticipated to start quickly, museum authorities mentioned. Constructed at an estimated price of Rs 300 crore, it was developed by the Union tradition ministry and varied departments underneath the Gujarat authorities.
The museum conjoins an precise excavated web site, the place one can see the stays of a 2,500-year-old historic city. To maintain guests engaged from the museum’s ticketing and ready lounge itself, a sensor-based flooring map retains projecting a self-guided digital tour of this Mehsana district city, additionally the birthplace of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Actual excavation websites and replicas
Of the museum’s 13,500 sq. metres, an space of three,400 sq m includes precise excavation websites: guests can see the stays of an precise fort wall and the precise archaeological web site, situated subsequent door. Within the museum, guests can stroll on a glass flooring put in over a reproduction of the location subsequent door. This reproduction features a part of the road displaying how the city and its actions developed. The museum additionally comprises a recreated brahman sheri (a slender lane) at Ghaskol, a small Buddhist monastery that was excavated not too long ago. To recreate the sheri within the museum, two layers of terracotta bricks have been stacked within the method as they have been discovered through the excavation.
For the experiential a part of the tour, a medium-sized excavation pit has been created contained in the museum. Right here, guests are inspired to make use of the obtainable archaeological instruments “to excavate actual objects”, apart from making an attempt their arms on the mortar and pestle, and the miniature stone grinder.
In addition to replicas of marker cash recovered from the excavated web site, which will be traced on paper with pencils, guests also can use clay and moulds to make their very own terracotta pots and watch them bake digitally. The museum additionally has actions for youngsters. At a wall part, they’ll create work utilizing watercolours and fill line drawings; within the shell gallery part, they’ll remedy a jigsaw puzzle; they’ll additionally design their very own bangles on a digital display screen and really feel them “digitally” on their hand; they usually also can use giant replicas of beads made from stone, glass and terracotta to make their very own necklaces, amongst different actions.
“Built-in with an experiential walkway over the in situ excavation web site, that is the first-of-its-kind museum in India. The thought behind it was to make somebody visiting Vadnagar perceive the historical past and significance of this city, which is over 2,500 years outdated,” Pankaj Sharma, director, Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Gujarat, tells The Indian Specific.
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To recreate the historical past of Vadnagar, the museum has 500 spots with audio information sensors, eight principal movies, 30 sub movies and varied audio-visual galleries.
Director Sharma provides, “Utilizing show and know-how, the museum makes an attempt to supply an exploration of the town’s evolution via interpretations of occasions over time. This contains inspecting practices like water administration, the idea within the area being a sacred house and the numerous position of Nagar Brahmins, amongst others.”
Galleries and experiences
Whereas replicas assist showcase the town’s evolution, over 6,000 actual artifacts have additionally been displayed within the museum’s galleries.
“The illustration of cultural intervals (on the museum) includes illustrating varied features, comparable to city existence, beliefs, political conditions, social construction and noteworthy occasions, as gleaned from archaeological and historic discoveries. Excavated artefacts, epigraphic proof, current monuments and constructed environments function narrative parts too. Town’s ongoing development and transformation are conveyed via horizontally stacked layers, with artefacts on the core of the curation course of,” says Grace Ann Varkey, superintending archaeologist, Gandhinagar, and the museum’s curator incharge.
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The museum has seven galleries and experiences primarily based on thematic frameworks: Reception and Orientation Gallery, Introduction Gallery, Metropolis Gallery, Perception Gallery, Way of life and Financial Gallery, Future Gallery and Introduction to Excavation Gallery.
The Introduction Gallery begins with a 270-degree projection present. The display screen then opens — like a door — taking guests to the subsequent degree, which has been designed to assist them perceive artefact highlights in relation to India and Gujarat. On the Metropolis Gallery, guests expertise a chronological narrative portraying the event of Vadnagar and its evolution through artefacts, replicas, installations, artworks, water administration programs, streets, partitions, excavation websites, monuments and extra.
The excavated web site gallery is devoted solely to the Amba Ghat excavations, the place part of the precise dig has been recreated for guests. The Perception Programs Gallery narrates the city’s spiritual panorama, together with Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Islam, via associated artefacts, rituals and current spiritual buildings. The Way of life and Economic system Gallery depicts the city’s life-style, financial and commerce actions, and their evolution over 2,500 years. This gallery contains subsections on agriculture practices, animal husbandry, pottery and know-how evolution, international commerce linkages and coin, terracotta, shell, glass, stone and ivory objects.
“These sections supply guests immersive experiences, which embrace quite a lot of installations, artefacts, replicas, reside workshops, 3D projections, set-ups primarily based on AR and VR (augmented actuality and digital actuality) and interactive installations,” says museum curator incharge Varkey.
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The Introduction to Excavation Gallery establishes the context of the excavation web site by utilizing a 3-D scaled mannequin of the dig and installations on key findings. The gallery additionally introduces guests to archaeological processes, instruments and methods.
The museum additionally contains three polished metal sculptures by Vibhor Sogani, an Indian artist and designer identified for his large-scale public artwork installations. Whereas one in every of these sculptures is contained in the museum, two others have been put in within the gardens.
Speaking in regards to the remaining galleries, Siddha Shah, superintending archaeologist, Rajkot, says, “The Future Gallery contemplates the way forward for Vadnagar by emphasising our conventional information programs, resilient practices, and the importance of our current actions within the context of future occasions and generations. Marking the conclusion of the museum expertise, guests are inspired to contribute to constructing a wall, each digitally and bodily.”
