ARCHAEOLOGY SPECIAL EDITION

For this last newsletter of the year we have collected for you a wide range of items excavated from various digging sites in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Thailand.

From Pakistan we present you this time a good selection of frieze fragments in grey schist dating from the ancient Buddhist kingdom of Gandhara depicting various episodes of the Buddha's life. Until a few years back, everything that could be dug up by local peasants, all good iconoclasts, was systematically destroyed, their religion prohibiting all depictions of living things. Fortunately they realized that by selling their findings they could earn a not inconsiderable income, and therefore these two thousand year old treasures can now reach us.

You will also find a gold plaque of the same provenance. Originally it was possibly sewn on a religious cloth, ecclesiastical robe or temple banner.

On the same religious register, we have added a considerable number of votive earthenware tablets depicting the Buddha. They are traditionally enshrined in the base of a stupa during its building, to consecrate it. All of these come from various sites and periods associated with ancient Siam, nowadays Thailand. This tradition was already established nearly 2000 years ago in Gandhara, though unfortunately very few of these tablets have traveled through time, due to erosion, earth returning to earth, the tablets not having been baked.

From Afghanistan we present you with a small iridescent glass flask with handles stemming from commercial trade with the Roman world, two very nice ceramic plates of the Seljuk period as well as two small dishes from this same medieval period of Iran. Almost all are inscribed with letters written in kufic script.

And to round off this newsletter, we have added varied types of potteries, some from Gandhara, these being rather rare, and two pots found in the East of Thailand, of the Ban Chiang Type, and representative of two very distinctive prehistorical periods. One in black earthenware in perfect condition being from the archaic period; the other, massive and glued back together, in red ochre colored earthenware being of the late period, but still about 2000 years old.

Hoping that you will find here an original or amazing gift for your friends and relatives, Under The Bo staff and myself wish you enjoyable year's end celebrations.

Thank you for your continued interest in these collections.

François Villaret

Click on the pictures to see all new products for November 2011

Click on the pictures to see all new products for November 2011