Treasures from prehistoric times
The display of a life-size model of the Baluchitherium, at the Pakistan Natural History Museum, is good news.
A life-size model of the Baluchitherium, the largest land-based mammal to have ever walked the Earth, has been put up at the Pakistan Natural History Museum (PNHM) at Shakarparian, Islamabad. It has immediately attracted the attention of all those who visit the site.
The sheer size of the creature, which lived over 20 million years ago, is breathtaking, standing 18 feet high at the shoulder. The fibre-glass model has been carefully recreated using the original bones.These were first uncovered in the 1900s by a British explorer but the actual significance of the bones unearthed in 2000 in Dera Bugti was discovered by a French paleontologist, whose discovery of massive bones revealed the true size of the animal. Further drama followed, with fears that the bones may have been lost or destroyed in the military operation that took place in the area but fortunately, they had been safely stored by the late Nawab Akbar Bugti, who was killed in 2006.
The display of the giant model is good news. But the attention evoked by the event also draws attention to the need for better museums in our country. The recently renovated PNHM is a good effort, with some attractive reconstructions. So is the folk museum at the same location and the reconstructed Saidpur village a short distance away. But these museums cannot even come close to others elsewhere in the world.
In Lahore, the colonial-era museum housing artefacts dating back to the Gandhara age is close to shambles. There is little to describe the displays or hold the interest of viewers. The same holds true for museums in Peshawar, Taxila and other places — and we have virtually no science museum of note at all. Neighbouring India has done better.
Museums and other such centres play an important role in national life. They not only educate, but inculcate pride in the past. We need to work more to develop our museums, so that people, and especially the young, can benefit from them. This can happen only if official funding and official interest in museums increase.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 26th, 2012.
The sheer size of the creature, which lived over 20 million years ago, is breathtaking, standing 18 feet high at the shoulder. The fibre-glass model has been carefully recreated using the original bones.These were first uncovered in the 1900s by a British explorer but the actual significance of the bones unearthed in 2000 in Dera Bugti was discovered by a French paleontologist, whose discovery of massive bones revealed the true size of the animal. Further drama followed, with fears that the bones may have been lost or destroyed in the military operation that took place in the area but fortunately, they had been safely stored by the late Nawab Akbar Bugti, who was killed in 2006.
The display of the giant model is good news. But the attention evoked by the event also draws attention to the need for better museums in our country. The recently renovated PNHM is a good effort, with some attractive reconstructions. So is the folk museum at the same location and the reconstructed Saidpur village a short distance away. But these museums cannot even come close to others elsewhere in the world.
In Lahore, the colonial-era museum housing artefacts dating back to the Gandhara age is close to shambles. There is little to describe the displays or hold the interest of viewers. The same holds true for museums in Peshawar, Taxila and other places — and we have virtually no science museum of note at all. Neighbouring India has done better.
Museums and other such centres play an important role in national life. They not only educate, but inculcate pride in the past. We need to work more to develop our museums, so that people, and especially the young, can benefit from them. This can happen only if official funding and official interest in museums increase.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 26th, 2012.