An exposition of pre-historic pottery from Balochistan

Karachi
A month-long exhibition of pottery from the third and fourth millennium BC discovered in Balochistan and confiscated by the Pakistan Customs while being smuggled out of the country was inaugurated at the National Museum, Karachi, on Thursday evening by Sharmila Farooqi, the Sindh chief minister’s advisor on cultural and heritage affairs.
The exhibition, arranged by the German Consulate-General, the Sindh Department of Antiquities and the Islamic Museum in Berlin, has on display 800 of the 1,200 artefacts that were confiscated by the Pakistan Customs.
The finds discovered range from 4,900 BC to 1900 BC.
A joint Pakistan-German project, it was overseen by Dr Uto Franke of the Islamic Museum in Berlin.
Dr Franke took the mediafolk on a round of the exhibition and explained to them in detail the features of all the finds with a brief history of the period these artefacts belonged to.
Sharmila Farooqi, who inaugurated the exhibition by cutting the ribbon, termed it the most important exhibition “housing our cultural heritage”, and appreciated the German Consulate-General and the German Foreign Office for always cooperating with Pakistan in such andeavours.
Talking to The News, she lauded the effort as, she said, it would acquaint our young people with their cultural and historical heritage and impart to them something to be proud of.
It would also instill in the young people a passion for studying history, which was essential “for knowing who and what we are”, he said.
The German consul-general in town, Rainer Schmidchen, said the real congratulations should go to the Islamic Museum in Berlin.
He termed the finds a scientific contribution to Baloch history.
In reply to a question from a media person as to whether the era of these finds was contemporary to the Mesopotamian civilisation, Dr
Franke replied that evidence suggested that it was.
Afterwards, Ustad Sachu Khan and his group of musicians from Dera Bugti presented dances and music native to Balochistan.
The musical group, a quartet, comprised two Iktaras, a Sarod, and a drum, all the instruments being played with all the gusto.
One of the songs they presented and danced to, “Jeevay, Jeevay Balochistan, Balochi, Brahavi, aur Pathan jis ki hai Pehchan”.