Call Number:

1064

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Penn Museum Archives

Extent:

4.1 linear foot

Language:

English

Date:

1935-1936 (bulk) and 1934-1939 (inclusive)

Creator:

Brown, W. Norman, 1892-1975 and Mackay, Ernest John Henry, 1880-1943

Form:

Card catalogs, Drawings (visual works), Faculty papers, and Site plans

Abstract:

W. Norman Brown (1892-1975)was the son of missionary parents, and lived in India from ages eight to thirteen. Brown went on to study at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he also obtained a Ph.D. in Indology in 1916. Brown continued to do research in Indology as both a Harrison Fellow for research in Sanskrit at the University of Pennsylvania from 1916-1916, and then a Johnston Fellow at Johns Hopkins University in 1919-1922. He served as the chairman emeritus of South Asian Regional Studies, as well as a professor emeritus of Sanskrit at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1927-28, Brown established the American School of Indic and Iranian Studies in Poon, India to allow American students and faculty to study in India. He served as president until his retirement in 1971. In 1922, Brown became the representative in India for the Archeological Institute of America. Brown wrote a book entitled

The United States, India, and Pakistan that recieved the Wutmull Prize from the American Historical Association for the best book on India in 1954.

Ernest John Henry Mackay (1880-1943) was from Bristol, England. In World War I, Mackay served as a member of the Army Commission, and surveyed ancient monuments in Palestine and Syria. In 1919-1922, Mackay became the Custodian of Antiquities for the Palestine Government, and following became an assistant to the Museum Curator, Clarence Fisher at a dig at Beth Shan. Later, from 1922-25, Mackay travelled to the Mesopotamian sites of Jemdet Nasr and Kish, as the Directory of the Field Museum at Oxford University. Following a discovery of an Indus seal at the site, Mackay began correspondance with Sir John Marshall of the Archaeological Survey of India, which led him to be a Field Director of excavations at Mohenjo-daro, a Harappan city occupied from ca. 2500-1900 BC in the Indus Valley of Pakistan. After the excavation, Mackay was contacted by Brown and together they began the excavation of Chanhu-daro.

W. Norman Brown (1892-1975) spent five years of his childhood living in India, and went on to study at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, recieving a Ph.D. in Indology in 1916. His interests in Indology prompted a pusuit in an excavation in India. Upon hearing of the ammendment of the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act of 1904, an act forbidding foreign expeditions to excavate in India, Brown applied to excavate, and after much persistence, was permitted to do so. Brown contacted Ernest J. H. Mackay (1880-1942), an experienced field director at the Harappan site of Mohenjo-daro, who agreed to act as Field Director of the excavation. Brown and Mackay then selected the Harappan site of Chanhu-daro.

Chanhu-daro, located in Pakistan 80 miles south of Mohenjo-daro,was first excavated by Nani Gopal Majumdar in March of 1930. From 1935-1936, Mackay led the expedition to Chanhu-daro, through the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the American School of Indic and Iranian Studies. Three mounds were surveyed and excavated, revealing multiple periods of occupation of the site by the Amri, Harappa, Jhukar, and Jhangar cultures. A large number of beads, bead-blanks, and bead-drills, as well as a substantial number of toys suggest that Chanhu-daro may have been a provincial manufacturing site during the Harappan period. Other artifacts such as seals, pottery, and a skeleton were found. The findings were published by the American Oriental Society in 1941 in the book

Chanhu-daro Excavations 1935-36. Objects found at the site are now at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The collection was acquired by the museum by ________ in _____. Photographs were acquired when the archives at the museum was established, and also in ____. It consists of fourteen boxes, including ten smaller boxes of the object card catalog. The collection includes correspondence, financial records, field notes, reports, drawings, and photographs. Correspondence and financial records fill one box, as do photographs and drawings. Field notes and reports fill one regular sized box, and ten smaller boxes.

The correspondence series includes letters and reports regarding the analysis of specimens found at Chanhu-daro as well as general correspondence. Photocopies of Brown's records give a more detailed look at letters specifically between Brown and Mackay, the Archaeological Survey of India, and the American Oriental Society (in two volumes).

Financial records includes budget figure books an account book, bank statements, used cheque books, and postal receipts. The budget figure and account books span the duration of the excavation.

Field notes are contained in both the regular box as well as ten object card catalog boxes. The regular box includes notebooks regarding site levels, miscellaneous notes and drawings, a register, lists, and tabulations. The original object register is included, in mylar sleeves due to its poor condition. Photocopies of the original register are also present.

The reports series includes a number of papers for the American School of Indic and Iranian Studies, the Archaelogical Institute of America, and the Journal of American Oriental Studies. A general excavation paper is also included. Box 15, separate from the main collection, holds plates from Mackay's book

Chanhu-daro Excavations 1935-36.

The drawings series have excavation site plans, damaged by water leaks. Plans of Mound II are present, as well as small drawings of objects found at the site.

The photograph series comprises two accessions. The first arrived when the Arhives was set up in the late 1970's- early 1980's. This group is arranged by subject matter. The second accession, MA1991-8, is organized in two groups: published (in

Chanhu-daro Excavations 1935-36) and unpublished. Photographs include prints of plans of the site as well as pottery drawings. General site views of the three mounds and photographs of workers are also included. Individual photographs of artifacts are organized by plates and subject.

The collection also includes oversized drawings of plans and levels in pen and ink on architects linen, as well as on cloth backed paper. Cutting Mound II Upper Levels and Cutting Mound II Lower Levels are both in bad condition due to water damage, and are fragile.