$100 Website Offer
Get your personal website + domain for just $100.
Limited Time Offer!
Claim Your Website Now| Archaeological Museum – Lothal |
| About Archaeological Museum: |
| Lothal is a place of tremendous archaeological significance. Lothal, a very ancient city lies about 87 kilometers from Ahmedabad. There was a a full-fledged settlement in Lothal during the the Harappan era that dates back to the 2nd millennium BC. About 82 kilometers from Ahmedabad, you will get the opportunity to see the incredible sight of the world’s oldest urban cultures or Harappan culture in its fullest form. .The museum was setup in 1976 in order to display the artifacts recovered from the excavation conducted from 1952 to 1961. The Museum has three galleries. In the front gallery depicts an artist’s conjectural idea of Harappan town of Lothal. There are also introductory write-ups and maps about the site. The gallery at left side has showcases with beads, terracotta ornaments, replicas of seal and sealings, shell and ivory objects, copper and bronze objects, tools and potteries yielded from excavations. The gallery at right has game objects animal and human figurines, weights, painted potteries, objects recovered from burials and ritual objects, miniature potteries, bricks besides a replica of a joint burial and a scaled model of Lothal site. Out of the 5089 objects unearthed during the excavation, 800 objects are on display in the museum. |
| Apart from the exhibited antiquities, the most fabulous antiquities of Lothal are beads, steatite seals with unicorn motif and inscription, terracotta sealing with an elephant motif, Persian Gulf type seal, gold necklace copper / bronze fish hooks, bangles, dish on stand, perforated jar, jar painted with the stories of thirsty crow and cunning fox, terracotta bull, horse, model boat, model of mummy, ivory scale and shell compass, chess dice, etc.Guys, this museum contains items from the dug up site of what was probably a port town of the Harappan civilization.. The Museum has three galleries. In the front gallery describes an artists divinatory idea of Harappan town of Lothal. There are also basic write-ups and maps about the site. The gallery at left side has demonstrates with beads, terracotta ornamentAt the museum of Lothal, you will find finger rings, bangles, other shell and terracotta ornaments, more than 200 seals, etc. In the seals found in Lothal you will get portrayed animals like mythical unicorn, elephant, mountain goat, tiger and the mythical elephant bull. The people also seemed to worship fire god and did animal sacrifice. The sacrificial altars found in the site prove the point. |
| Location info Archaeological Museum: |
| Address:Archaeological Museum ,Lothal,Gujarat,India |
| District:Ahmedabad |
| Nearest City: Bavla |
| Language: Gujarati, Hindi. |
| Best time to visit: October to March |
| Climate/Weather: |
| Maximum temperature during summer hovers around 23°- 44°C while the minimum temperature during winter dips down to around 10°-36°C. |
| History of Archaeological Museum: |
| The Archaeological Museum,it was discovered in the year 1954, but its excavation work began on the February 13, 1955, which continued till May 19, 1960.There are also introductory write-ups and maps about the site. The gallery at left side has showcases with beads, terracotta ornaments, replicas of seal and sealings, shell and ivory objects, copper and bronze objects, tools and potteries yielded from excavations |
| Interesting things to do: |
| worshipped: The people of Lothal worshipped a fire god, speculated to be the horned deity depicted on seals named Atha (Athar) and Arka, which is also evidenced by the presence of private and public fire-altars where sacrifices of animals and cattle were apparently conducted. Archaeologists have discovered gold pendants, charred ashes of terra-cotta cakes and pottery, bovine remains, beads and other signs that may indicate the practice of the Gavamayana sacrifice, associated with the ancient Vedic religion. |
| Interesting things to Visit: |
| Earthenware: strong large ceramic jars, human and animal figurines, as well as toys and games-figures.A thick ring-like shell object found with four slits each in two margins served as a compass to measure angles on plane surfaces or in the horizon in multiples of 40 degrees, up to 360 degrees. Such shell instruments were probably invented to measure 8–12 whole sections of the horizon and sky, explaining the slits on the lower and upper margins. Copper and stone tools: Tn beautiful designs of human and animal figurines, often of bulls.Lothali copper is unusually pure, lacking the arsenic typically used by coppersmiths across the rest of the Indus valley. The city imported ingots from probable sources in the Arabian peninsula. Workers mixed tin with copper for the manufacture of celts, arrowheads, fishhooks, chisels, bangles, rings, drills and spearheads, although weapon manufacturing was minor. They also employed advanced metallurgy in following the cire perdue technique of casting, and used more than one-piece moulds for casting birds and animals seals: Lothal holds the third largest collection of seals and sealings, engraved on steatite, with animal and human figurines and letters from Indus script, but these remain undeciphered, so they do not provide as much insight into the material culture as the other findings. They do however show aspects of the spiritual culture; there are signs of worship of fire, and of the sea goddess, but not of the mother goddess.Beads: Lothal had a highly developed bead-making industry that has not been surpassed even by the modern Cambay craftspeople working 4000 years later. Lothal was famous for its micro-beads that were made by rolling ground steatite paste on string, baking it solid, and then cutting it with a tiny saw into the desired lengths. The expertise is evident in the micro-beads of gold under 0.25 mm in diameter which cannot be found anywhere else. The gold, like today, was most likely only for the upper classes, while the poorest citizens had to make do with shell and terracotta ornaments. weights and measures: Despite the vast area over which the Harappan culture spread, it developed an extraordinarily precise system of weights and measures, standardized across the empire, represented in the local materials at Lothal. Underground drainage: There were also 12 private paved baths on the upper town, probably for the ruling classes. These all show a remarkably forward thinking concern for hygiene and sanitation.On plan, Lothal stands 285 metres (935 ft) north-to-south and 228 metres (748 ft) east-to-west. At the height of its habitation, it covered a wider area since remains have been found 300 metres (1000 ft) south of the mound. Due to the fragile nature of unbaked bricks and frequent floods, the superstructures of all buildings have receded. Dwarfed walls, platforms, wells, drains, baths and paved floors are visible Dock and warehouse: The dockyard allowed ships to sluice from the sea, and expertly constructed lock gates allowed them to float while loading or unloading their cargo. Apparently the dockyard could, at that time, hold 30 ships of 60 tonnes, or 60 ships of 30 tonnes, a capacity comparable to that of the modern docks of Vishakapatnam. The dock allowed sea trade with West Asia, in particular, to expand greatly. |
| Mobile range info: |
| How to reach Archaeological Museum? |
| Nearest Railway Station:Bhurkhi railway station,Bhavnagar to Ahmedabad railway line. |
| Nearest Airport:Ahmedbad (78 km),Airport |
| Road Transport:State and private buses are always available. Apart from this,Lothal is 78 km from Ahmedabad. Buses from Ahmedabad take 3 hours. |
| Nearest Visiting places from Archaeological Museum: |
| Nalsarovar Bird Sanctuary: A black tailed godwit gracefully descends upon the tranquil water, flutters its wings and sails on. A small, brown and white wader with a slightly up curved bill, the bird has traveled 3500 kms from its nesting ground in Central Europe to spend the winter at Nalsarovar in Gujarat!.Clouds upon clouds of more than 200 types of birds land in this lake having made an equally long journey to escape the harsh winter of their nesting areas. Here they find food and warmth. These migrant birds visit Nalsarovar every year from November to February. During these four months water is plentiful and fish, insects and aquatic plants abound in the lake – an ideal environment for the birds.Nalsarovar at this time is a birdwatcher’s delight. When food and water are scarce in Nalsarovar, some birds go away for short periods to nearby areas and return to the lake after monsoon to a feast of fish and insects. These are the resident birds. The lake – Nalsarovar – and the wetlands around it were declared a bird sanctuary in 1969. Spread over 120 sq.kms, the lake and the extensive reed beds and marshes are an ideal habitat for aquatic plants and animals. The lake attracts a large variety of birds like plovers, sandpipers and stints.Thol lake bird sanctuary: Thol lake bird sanctuary is a shallow freshwater body surrounded by marshes on the edge and scrubby forest embarking the sides. The lake sanctuary covering an area of 7 square kilometers was declared officially in 1988 and is also known by the name of Thol Bird Sanctuary. The shallow water reservoir speckled with reed beds gives it a distinct ambience while being an ideal dwelling for varied species of birds and insects. The agricultural land surrounding the lake provide ample amount of food for quite a number of birds while the hydrological ecosystem takes care of the others. One gets overwhelmed with flocks of bird flying together and crating graphical patterns on the sky while long-legged elongated necked cranes keep stalking for fishes and small insects. The still and serene ambience of the locale gets melodiously symphonized with the echoing of thousands birds and illustrated by the varied movements of these spirited creatures.A visual treat for any tourist and a treasurable experience for a bird watcher or ornithologists, this place is home to more than 100 species of birds. Cranes, geese, flamingoes, pelicans, egrets, herons, spoonbills, ducks, whistling teals and many other migratory birds nest and breed in the lap of this natures exuberance. The most commonly noticed Indian Saras Crane with its long bare legs, elongated head and red head gracefully pecks insects while walking around the lake with dance like movements. This bird which flaunts the status of being the tallest flying bird on earth is often see in pairs and has over centuries inspired poets and artists with its elegance and beauty. |
| Nearest Petrol Pump from Archaeological Museum: |
| HP Petrol Pump: NH-8A, Bavla.Ahmedabad,Gujrat,India,Ph: 02714-32089 Alakha Petrol pump:Limbdi,Gujarat,India |
| Hotels/Lodge/Accommodation nearby Archaeological Museum: |
| Avantika Hotel:Limbdi,Surendranagar,Gujarat,India,Ph:02753 260794 Hotel Shiv International:SH 20,Surendra Nagar,Gujarat,IndiaHotel Jamna:Limbdi,Surendranagar,Gujarat,India |
| Things to carry: |
| Tips & Suggestions for Archaeological Museum: |
| Help Line/Phone Number: |
| Police Station: |
| Nearest Hospital: RR. Hospital:Limbdi,Surendranagar,Gujarat,India Gandhi Hospital:SH 20,Surendra Nagar,Gujarat,India |
| Society/Community Phone Number |
| Links:www.asi.nic.in |
