Charles Masson: Collections from Begram and Kabul Bazaar, Afghanistan, 1833–1838

From 1833–8, Charles Masson (1800–1853) was employed by the British East India Company to explore the ancient sites in south-east Afghanistan. In return for funding his exploration of the ancient sites of Afghanistan, the British East India Company received all of Masson’s finds. These were sent to the India Museum in London, and when it closed in 1878 the British Museum was the principal recipient of all the ‘archaeological’ artefacts and a proportion of the coins. This volume discusses and catalogues Charles Masson’s 1833–8 collections of coins and other objects from the urban site of Begram and Kabul bazaar, supplemented by illustrated coins recorded in other sources but no longer in the British Museum’s collection. This volume therefore studies the British Museum’s collection of these fascinating objects, including reliquaries, beads and coins, and places them within a wider historical and archaeological context.

The book accompanies the previous two publications on Charles Masson’s collections by Elizabeth Errington: Charles Masson and the Buddhist Sites of Afghanistan: Explorations, Excavations, Collections 1832−1835 (British Museum Research Publication no. 215) and The Charles Masson Archive: British Library, British Museum and Other Documents Relating to the 1832–1838 Masson Collection from Afghanistan (British Museum Research Publication no. 216).