eBulletin for Coins, Culture, History and
Archaeology of
No. 3, April 2005
Reesha Books International www.reeshabooks.com
-------------------------------------
Message from the Editors
-------------------------------------
Welcome to the
Reesha Books International’s monthly eBulletin for Coins, Culture, History
and Archaeology of
From this issue
onwards Dr. Ambika Patel has joined as a
Contributing Editor of the eBulletin.
She did her Ph. D. in Iron Technology in Early Historic India: A Case Study
of Gujarat from the M. S. University of Baroda and is currently
working as Curator-Lecturer
in the Dept of Archaeology & Ancient History, M. S. University of Baroda,
Vadodara.
In this issue,
we have introduced a new feature called, News from the Field. In this section we will summarize
latest excavations even before their reports are published in any research
journals. So this is our attempt to keep you well-informed much ahead of any
research publications. So read on…
Features of the Month are:
6.
Openings in History,
Culture & Archaeology
-------------------------------------
Ø Nuclear Science Helps Identify Fake Art
The United Nation's International Atomic
Energy Agency is now using nuclear science to help countries crack down on illegal
trade in counterfeit art.
The Vienna-based agency has teamed up with
experts from
The reaction from shooting a beam of
neutrons or protons at a sample area of an artwork reveals a lot of information
that help scientists identify the origin and age without causing damage to it.
Even the minutest analytical quantities can be traced safely and accurately.
In an initiative, for example, neutron
activation and ion beam analysis performed at the Louvre exposed a portrait of
Renaissance French potter Bernard Palissy as a fake.
IAEA chemist Matthias Rossbach says law
enforcement personnel could use portable elemental analysers at borders to help
combat art trafficking.
Log on for more details: http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/mar/12fake.htm
(submitted by Girish Veera, girishvira50@hotmail.com)
The recent Auction Catalogue No. 10 of
Todywalla’s Auctions (Lot No. 26) has reported a unique silver coin of the
Gupta Monarch Budhagupta (AD 476-502) dated in Gupta Era 183 (AD 502/3). The
catalogue reads: the coin is
the latest recorded date on the silver coins of Budhagupta. As such his gold
coins are very rare and only 6 silver coins are reported. Only date known on
these coins is 175. The only other date reported but doubted was 180. The
present coin is important for a number of reasons. It is the first coin that
extends his dated coins up to 183; secondly, it was assumed by scholars that
Budhagupta died sometime in AD 496. But the present coin proves that he was
still alive till AD 502 and was issuing coins (www.todyauction.com).
The Catalogue No. 10 of Todywalla’s
Auctions (Lot No. 239) has an unusual brass seal weighing 850 g with legends in
negative in Bangala and English that reads Gopee
Soondory Dassee Madora Woopendro Narain Sing. It belongs to a maid servant,
Gopi Sundari of the king Upendra Narain.
Archaeology is addressing the need for
justice in gathering evidence about human rights violations around the
world. We feature this form of applied research in Archaeology
Serving Justice, our new audio interview featuring forensic archaeologist
Mercedes Doretti on our nonprofit streaming-media Web site, The
Archaeology Channel http://www.archaeologychannel.org.
Since 1984, the Argentine organization
Equipo Argentino de Antropologia Forense (EAAF), or Argentine Forensic Anthropology
Team, has applied the forensic sciences, particularly forensic anthropology and
forensic archaeology, to the investigation of human rights violations. In
this interview with TAC's Adam Fish, recorded via telephone on 15 January 2005,
Moretti tells the remarkable story of the EAAF, its origins, its activities,
and its future. The work involves genetics, ballistics, radiology, and
computer sciences. Using these tools and techniques, EAAF exhumes bodies
to establish the cause of death and to identify skeletal remains of
victims. Through its work, EAAF assists the relatives of the victims to
recover the remains of their disappeared loved ones in many countries around
the world. This work contributes to the historical reconstruction of
atrocities that offending governments seek to minimize, hide, or deny.
EAAF's investigations produce criminal evidence useful in the courts and have
proven critical in the pursuit of justice.
This and other programs are available on
TAC for your use and enjoyment. We urge you to support this public
service by participating in our Membership http://www.archaeologychannel.org/member.html
and Underwriting http://www.archaeologychannel.org/sponsor.shtml
programs. Only with your help can we continue and enhance this nonprofit
public-education and visitor-supported service. We also welcome new
content partners as we reach out to the world community. For further details,
contact: Richard M. Pettigrew, Ph.D., RPA, President and Executive Director
Archaeological Legacy Institute http://www.archaeologychannel.org.
In an Interview
to the eBulletin, Dr. Patricia
Verdi Raval of Fort Worth Museum of Science and History,
The Gilbert Hill
in Andheri, a suburb of Mumbai is situated on the west edge of the Deccan Lava
Flow before it goes into the
The Gilbert Hill
is a very unique part of this
Columnar basalt
is no longer being formed anywhere on the earth. Therefore, the existing sites
of this type of basalt are very important from the standpoint of geology and
tourism The factor which makes Gilbert Hill so very special is that the basalt
surrounding the hexagonal columns has been eroded away, leaving the peak
beautifully exposed on all sides. Furthermore, the individual columns are
unusually long and exceptionally well formed. This hill is in a geological
class by itself and far more accessible than other deposits of columnar basalt
around the world such as the Giant’s Causeway in
Bagasra Excavation – 2005 (the Harappan
settlement in
The final season's excavations at Bagasra (locally
known as Gola Dhora) is one km south of a small sleepy village Bagasra that is
situated on the southern shore of Gulf of Kutch in Maliya Taluka of District
Rajkot in Gujarat. A team of archaeologists from the Maharaja Sayajirao
University of Baroda comprising of Dr. Ajithprasad, Prof. K. K. Bhan, Mr. S.
Pratap Chandran, Dr. K. Krishnan and Prof. V. H. Sonawane along with efficient
and experienced team of technical staff conducted the excavations with the
financial assistance of the University Grants Commission, Archaeological Survey
of India and Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. As usual, the students of
M. A. part I were given intensive archaeological field training for a period of
one month supplemented by a series of special lectures by various faculties.
This season revealed the eastern main gateway, a shell
workshop (the only one of its kind discovered so far in any Harappan settlement
excavated in
In nutshell, the excavators visualize that this
settlement as a small fortified busy town-humming with activities that took
place 4,500 years ago and belong to the Indus Valley civilization. The site has
given a long sequence of 700 years of its history that is represented by
approximately 7.75 m cultural deposit. In the beginning the Harappans at
Bagasra used the mud bricks for constructing their houses that followed
standard Harappan ratio of 1:2:4 though the construction of the fortification
wall around the settlement started later in Phase II.
The phase not only saw the construction of mud brick
fortification wall with stone foundation reaching a height of 3 m and having a
width of 5 to 7 m, but also the settlement seems to have developed into a
flourishing center for the production of various craft items in faience, stone
beads and shell bangle. The Harappans of this settlement procured raw materials
from various parts of
Phase III is terminal stage of urban-way of life and
also slowing down of various economic activities that dominated the earlier
phase. In the final phase they seem to have reverted back to rural way of life.
The excavations have revealed the dependence of major
urban centers of Indus Valley Civilization and their elites on the outlying
resources areas. Further analysis of the excavated material is hoped to focus
on understanding the reasons of the change in life styles in the life history
of Harappans. Besides, the excavators will try to understand the mechanism that
was used in procurement and distribution of finished goods and raw material by
small settlements like Bagasra that seem to have served as the backbone for the
survival and grandeur of major urban centers like Mohenjodaro, Harappa,
Dholavira, etc. (after Bhan 2005)
Ø
The
Pallava Coins by R. Krishnamurthy.
2004, 210 x 240 mm, 196 pages on art paper and printed in four-colours (soft bound).
This is the first full-length study in English on coins of the Pallavas who
held sway over different areas adjoining the eastern coast of peninsular
Ø
Coinage
of Akbar-The Connoisseur’s Choice by A. V. Liddle. 2005. 75 colour plates illustrating gold
coins from 19 mints, silver from 53 mints and coppers from 75 mints.
Ø
Old
issues of ICS Newsletter are now available bound in 2 volumes: ICS
Newsletter Nos. 1-20 in volume 1 and Nos. 21-34 in volume 2.
To order these, contact Ms. Priyamvada Pavagadhi of Reesha Books at info@reeshabooks.com or visit www.reeshabooks.com
Ø
S. M. Shukla Coin Fair, Mumbai
Continuing the tradition of organizing coin fair called S. M. Shukla
Memorial Coin Fair in Mumbai, this year too it has been arranged from 22-24
April 2005 at Tejpal Galleries, Gowalia Tank, Grant Road, Mumbai 400 004.
Ø
Annual Conference on
South Asia at
The 34th Annual Conference
on
Please use the website at www.wisc.edu/southasiaconference
to submit your panel, single paper or roundtable proposal. All related
information regarding the conference is also given on the website. Contact the
conference coordinator at conference@southasia.wisc.edu
or call (608) 262-4884 with inquiries. Contact: Cathy Schmitt, Conference Coordinator, Center for South Asia,
· United States
Educational Foundation in India had recently
organized an exhibition of photographs, American Museums thru Indian Eyes by
Dr. Savia
Viegas, the Fulbright Senior Research Fellow 2003-2004 at the
Piramal Gallery,
· New Website on
Numismatics
Mr. Praful K
Thakkar, the founder of the Thakkar
Numismatic and Art Foundation, Cary, NC USA is going to launch his website Numismatic Heritage of
Ø
Launch of a new coin club: Indian Numismatics Guidance Forum
The Indian
Numismatics Guidance Forum has been established with the aim of encouraging new
collectors to pursue thematic collection. The primary objective of the Forum is
to provide precise valuation of the numismatic stock based on the current
market valuation and demand.
Ø
Todywalla’s Auction, No. 10
The next
auction, No. 10 of the Todywalla’s Auctions will be held on Saturday, the 23rd
April 2005 at Tejpal Galleries, Gowalia Tank, Grant Road, Mumbai 400 007 from
6.30 pm onwards. You can view their on-line catalogue here, www.todyauction.com
· Dr. Murari Nagar (nagarm@missouri.edu)
is working on an ambitious project on
· Mr. Rajesh Somkuwar (rajsomkuwar@yahoo.com)
is working on coins of City-States of Ancient India. He has requested for any information or photographs on the subject. All
the contributions will be duly acknowledged.
6.
Openings in
History, Culture, Archaeology, Art & Linguistics
Good luck in your job search…
School of Historical
Studies,
For more details log on to: http://jobs.ac.uk/jobfiles/NH643.html
School of Historical
Studies,
For more details log on to: http://jobs.ac.uk/jobfiles/NH644.html
Leverhulme Research Programme 'Changing
beliefs of the Human Body',
For more details log on to: http://jobs.ac.uk/jobfiles/PR794.html
Department of Classics
and Ancient History,
For more details log on to: http://jobs.ac.uk/jobfiles/LM133.html
For more details log on to: http://jobs.ac.uk/jobfiles/IX206.html
Can We All Go like that?
A man's daughter had asked the local minister to come
and pray with her father.
When the minister arrived, he found the man lying in
bed with his head propped up on two pillows. An empty chair sat beside his bed.
The minister assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit.
“I guess you were expecting me”, he said.
“No, who are you?” said the father.
The minister told him his name and then remarked, “I
saw the empty chair and I figured you knew I was going to show up.”
“Oh yeah, the chair,” said the bedridden man. “Would
you mind closing the door?”
Puzzled, the minister shut the door.
“I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter,”
said the man. “But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I
used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it went right over my head. I
abandoned any attempt at prayer,” the old man continued, “until one day four
years ago, my best friend said to me”, ‘Johnny, prayer is just a simple matter
of having a conversation with Jesus. Here is what I suggest.’
‘Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of
you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair.
It's not spooky because he promised, “I will be with you always”. Then
just speak to him in the same way you're doing with me right now.’
“So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it
a couple of hours every day. I'm careful though. If my daughter saw me talking
to an empty chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the
funny farm.”
The minister was deeply moved by the story and
encouraged the old man to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with him,
anointed him with oil, and returned to the church.
Two nights later the daughter called to tell the
minister that her daddy had died that afternoon.
“Did he die in peace?” he asked.
“Yes, when I left the house about two o'clock, he
called me over to his bedside, told me he loved me and kissed me on the cheek.
When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him dead. But there was something strange about his
death. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head
on the chair beside the bed. What do you make of that?”
The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said, “I wish we could all go like that!”
One should keep his words
both soft and tender,
Because,
tomorrow he may have to eat
them…
In 1954, Jimmy Denny, Manager of the Grand Ole Opry, fired a singer after one performance. He told him, “You ain't goin' nowhere....son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck.”
Well, the guy went on to become, Elvis Presley!
Upgrade from Girl friend to Wife:
A Software engineer had a problem... So he
wrote to the popular software magazine asking for the solution...
Software Engineer writes:
Subject: Upgrade from a Girlfriend 7.0 to
a Wife 1.0
“Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0
to Wife 1.0 and noticed that the new program began unexpected child processing
that took up a lot of space and valuable resources. No mention of this
phenomenon was included in the product brochure. In addition, Wife 1.0 installs
itself into all other programs and launches during system initialization, where
it monitors all other system activity. Applications such as Smoking 10.3,
Boozing 2.5 and Saturday Night Pubs 5.0 no longer run, crashing the system
whenever selected. I cannot keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to
run some of my other favorite applications like Night Club 4.3, Dance 'n' Drunk
2.0 and Bachelor Party 7.77. I am thinking about going back to Girlfriend 7.0,
but the UN-install does not work on this program. Once I tried to uninstall
Wife 1.0 but got this error ‘General Protection Fault in module House Security.
The Uninstallation will abort.’ Can you help me, please!!!”
The reply:
“Dear Software Engineer,
Ref: Upgrade from a girlfriend to a wife…
This is a very common problem men complain
about, but is mostly due to a primary misconception. Many people upgrade from
Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0 with the idea that Wife 1.0 is merely a UTILITIES
& ENTERTAINMENT program. Wife 1.0 is actually an OPERATING SYSTEM and
designed by its creator to run everything. It is unlikely you would be able to
purge Wife 1.0 and still convert back to Girlfriend 7.0. It is impossible to
UN-install, delete, or purge Wife 1.0 from the system once installed. You
cannot go back to Girlfriend 7.0 because Wife 1.0 is not designed to do this.
Some have tried to install Girlfriend 8.0 or Wife 2.0 but end up with more
problems than the original system. Look in your manual under ‘Warnings-Alimony/Child
Support’ which was given to you at the time of registration with Wife 1.0. I
recommend you keep Wife 1.0 and just deal with the situation. Having Wife 1.0
installed myself, I might also suggest you read the entire section regarding
General Partnership Faults (GPFs). The best course of action will be to enter
the command C:\APOLOGIZE. In fact, I would suggest you to use this command
every time Wife 1.0 crashes on your system. Wife 1.0 is a great program, but
very high maintenance.
Consider buying additional software to
improve the performance of Wife 1.0. I recommend Flowers 2.1 and Chocolates 5.0
or Movies 4.5 which will improve the performance of Wife 1.0. Do not, under any
circumstances, install Visual Secretary With Short Skirt 3.3. This is not a
supported application for Wife 1.0 and is likely to cause irreversible damage
to the operating system. Recent Survey says that Add-On softwares like Visual
Sari 2.0, Diamond Necklace 3.0, Holidays 1.0 are the best Third Party tools
that supports Wife 1.0 program to run smoothly and effectively. All the best.”
Hello Friends,
If you feel you have some
interesting information in the field of academics like new researches,
discoveries, synopsis of your thesis; or news about events, job & research
openings; or have interesting moral stories, etc, than do send us. These will
be listed with your name in the forthcoming issues of eBulletins. You can also announce your seminars, conferences, work-shops,
job openings, etc. in the eBulletin.
If you are working on a research project, and want to get help like data,
information, photographs, etc from others, than feel free to announce here. You
can also publish summary of your latest excavations so as to reach to hundreds
of historians, archaeologists and related institutions in no time. All these
for FREE!
The eBulletin is subscribed
by over 800 historians, numismatists and archaeologists all over the world.
Dr.
Contributing Editor:
Dr. Ambika Patel, Curator-Lecturer,
Dept of Archaeology & Ancient History, M. S. University of Baroda,
Vadodara. (ambikamsu@yahoo.com)
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R Us, Tarabaug Estate, Near
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Coin
Gallery, 22A, Lansdowne Road, Bright Lands Bldg, Behind Regal Cinema, Apollo
Bunder, Colaba, Mumbai 400 039; Phone: 022-22852355 (Contact Person – Abdul Razak Shaikh)
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Coins
Centre, Room No. 6, 1st Floor, 121 Memon Manzil, Near Zam Zam Hotel, Opp.
Shaifi High School, Baniyan Street, Pydhonie, Mumbai 400 003; Phone: 022-2346
1574 (Contact Person – Zubair Khan)
·
Coins
& Curios Centre, 28/30 Morvi House Compund, S B Path (
Ahmedabad:
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Coins
Mehidpur:
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Numismatic
·
Coin
World, Golchha Marg,
·
Curios
Centre, 55 Gole Market,
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Je
Cee Enterprises,
Secunderabad
·
Numisphila Services, No. 9, First Floor, H. M. Ishaque
Estate,
Vadodara:
·
Shri
Mahavir Trading Co., Shri Vallabh Pushti Complex, Shop No. 9, Krishna
Sheri, Karoria Pole, M. G. Road, Vadodara 390 018; Phone: 0265-242 1552 (Contact Person – Kirit Parekh)