The Indus Center and Conservation Program

Global Heritage Fund (GHF) is securing Stage One funding towards the design and construction of a world-class Indus Center including museum, research center and conservation institute. GHF funding will ensure the Indus Center is a Smithsonianclass museum and international research center for India that will become the #1 destination for students, nationals and foreign visitors to the greater Indus region.

India invests less than $400,000 a year in conservation, museums and research for the Indus Civilization. Tourism is virtually non-existent. In contrast, Mexico invests over $120 million a year in conservation, museums and promotion of their earliest civilizations to generate over $2.4 billion dollars in tourism revenues. The Indus Civilization is equally as rich and has the same development potential as the world’s other Cradles of Civilization- Egypt, Mexico, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and China.

The Indus Center is being established as a partnership between Global Heritage Fund (USA), Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) of Baroda (Vadodara) and the Indus Center Board of Directors. MSU will be providing the land and loan of the artifact collections relating to the prehistory of Gujarat, the Indus civilization and its legacy. It will also provide access to its world-famous Indus Library, while GHF (USA) will provide project leadership and funding.

GHF has established the Indus Heritage Trust (India) to raise funding in-country for the Indus Center construction and operations. GHF funding from the USA of will be focused on leading and completion of design, exhibits, conservation and planning.

Stage One Planning and Design Goals and Objectives

GHF is raising money in 2005 for planning, design and project leadership required for the Indus Center through June, 2006. This initial funding will enable GHF to lead the project and complete the following ten milestones:

1. Building a world-class Indus Center Board of Directors in the USA and India and Expert Advisory Committee who are committed to success and funding of the Indus Center
2. Securing Stage Two funding in the USA and pledges in funding commitments from industrials, corporations and families for Indus Center construction from India sponsors
3. Securing all Land and MSU and Gujarat Government Approvals
4. Completion of Indus Center Design, Master Plan and Budget
5. Holding GHF’s Second Indus Heritage Summit in January, 2006 in Baroda
6. Completion of Master Conservation Plan (MCP) for Dholavira and preparation for UNESCO World Heritage nomination
7. Mapping and GIS of major known Indus and Harappan sites
8. Conservation and 2D & 3D Digital Inventory of the most important Indus artifacts and museum-quality treasures
9. International exchange of 6-8 top scholars and graduate students
10. Commencement of construction of Indus Center in July, 2006

Above: Conceptual ideas for the Indus Center Exterior and Interior. Below: Examples of world-class museum exhibits and interior design (Asian Art Museum of San Francisco).

Above: The largest Harappan water management systems (left) are found at Dholavira. Major gateways, passages and evidence of large-scale city planning are found as early as BC3000.

Saving the Indus Civilization
The Indus civilization is the most under-funded and least understood of the major civilizations – Egypt, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Mesoamerica and China.

Total funding last year (2004) was under $400,000 for all India and international scholarship, research, excavation and site conservation combined. Egypt or Mexico, by contrast, invest hundreds of millions of dollars in their museums, conservation and collections. Cultural tourism in Egypt today generates over $3 billion in Cultural Tourism, and over $2.4 billion in Mexico. GHF is working to ignite this exceptional opportunity for economic development, education cultural revitalization, new discovery and scholarship in India.

The Indus Center will be the first world-class museum for the Indus Civilization, one of the oldest and widest-reaching civilizations of the ancient world. The Indus Center will also bring millions of visitors each year and be a magnet for international and domestic tourism.

Both Gujarat and the central government are working with GHF to make the Indus Center in Baroda the next major hub for tourism and Indus scholarship, while remaining an independent, dynamic and thriving private institution.

The concept of the Indus Center came from the fact that India has no world-class museum for the Indus Civilization. Tourism is growing rapidly in India and GHF believes that the Indus Civilization deserves to have a Smithsonian-class museum, research and education facility on par with Egypt, Mexico, Turkey or China.

GHF believes that over 2-3 million students, families, international tourists and domestic travelers will come annually to The Indus Center at Baroda, including many of tens of millions who travel through Baroda on the train and highways between Mumbai and Ahmedabad or New Delhi.

Location of the Indus Center – Baroda, Gujarat

Gujarat has several hundred Indus sites including two most important sites in India- Dholavira and Lothal, monumental testaments which vividly illustrate the technological and scientific prowess and historical importance to humankind’s development of the earliest known civilizations in South Asia, dating from as far back as 3300 B.C.E.

Baroda provides a central location for the Indus Center in a historically thriving cultural crossroads which was a famous princely kingdom. Today, Baroda is rapidly growing while keeping its cultural relevance, vibrancy and charm centered on M.S. University, the historic town and gardens, its impressive temples and the nearby UNECSO World Heritage site of Champaner.

Scattered collections of Indus period cultural treasures are found in the site museums of India, Pakistan, the National Museum in New Delhi, at Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) of Baroda and in the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) storage facilities. M.S. University has a comprehensive collection of Indus artifacts representing all aspects of this important civilization and an outstanding Indis library which can be integrated into the new Indus Center. The proposed site will be in the University campus or in its close vicinity.

Indus Center Expert Advisory Committee

Prof. Kuldeep Bhan, Chair, Dept. of Archaeology, M.S. University, Baroda

Prof. J. Mark Kenoyer, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin

Prof. R. S. Bisht, Retired, Additional Director General, ASI

Charles Correa, Architect

Kalpana Desai, San Francisco Asian Art Museum

Dr. Jyotindra Jain, ex-director, National Crafts Museum, New Delhi

Abha Lambah, Historic Architect

Paul Jett, Head of Conservation and Scientific Research, Freer-Sackler Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution

In January, 2005 the first Indus Heritage Summit was held in New Delhi.
Global Heritage Fund (GHF) is currently finishing the Indus Center Vision Plan with our Board of Directors and the Indus Center Expert Advisory Committee comprised of the world’s leading South Asia and leading-edge museum experts and Indus researchers.

Prominent Indian leaders in the United States, Europe and India have given their support to the Indus Center and we expect to have Stage One funding completed in July, 2005 ($240,000). Stage Two funding of $800,000 for museum design, interior and exterior exhibits, research, exchange and interpretation will be secured by June, 2006 from private donors, foundations and corporations.

Leading Indus scholars, Dr. Kuldeep Bahn, Professor of Archaeology and Dr. Mark Kenoyer, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Co- Director of the Harappa Archaeological Research Project (HARP), will spearhead the project and provide conceptual ideas and visionary leadership committing time, research and needed support. GHF will be signing a joint partnership agreement with M.S. University in August for establishing the Indus Center in Vadodara. The new Vice Chancellor of the University has expressed urgency to have the Center established as soon as possible.

With a team of world class advisors and the experience of internationally renowned museums like the Freer/Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, we will create an Indus Center that will parallel the significant role played by the very successful Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, two of the world’s great museums for the study of ancient civilizations.

The Opportunity – Why Now?
Dholavira and the Indus sites of Gujarat urgently need to be declared UNESCO World Heritage to galvanize government protection and international support.

GHF’s Indus Heritage Program will drive this UNESCO World Heritage nomination through Master Conservation Planning, an integrated research, tourism, education and publishing program, and providing new economic development opportunities for the least developed areas of Gujarat.

An Indus Center will not only comprise a major educational and research institute, but will also be a magnet for domestic and international tourism for Gujarat and India, spurring new growth and development. Gujarat today is dwarfed by its northern neighbor in capturing the international tourism market which brings Rajistan over $840 million in tourism revenues and a bustling travel and hospitality business. Hundreds of thousands of good, steady jobs have been created in an otherwise difficult and remote state of India.

There is major potential to ignite new tourism for Gujarat by highlighting and saving the major Indus sites. The Indus Center and Dholavira together will be magnets for tourism. By establishing a world-class, international Indus research and education center which draws millions of international and Indian visitors, the Indus civilization will have - for the first time- a magnet for tourism which will ignite all of Gujarat’s ancient and historic wonders.

There is an ideal opportunity to grow tourism in Gujarat by establishing a network of well-conserved Indus Heritage sites integrated with the world’s first Indus Heritage Museum. Together with a world-class Indus Center, this effort can result in designation of the Indus region in Gujarat as UNESCO World Heritage in the coming years.

GHF is leading an effort to establish the Indus Center and to help conserve the site of Dholavira as a central hub for tourism, research and exploration of the rich Indus civilization heritage that will rival Egypt and Mesopotamia, and become the primary showcase for tourism for the Indus civilization for the coming decades. Dholavira will become the major tourist attraction for Indus heritage tours and will be the center of a larger network of early Indus period sites.

Cultural tourism in Egypt today generates over $3 billion in cultural tourism, and over $2.4 billion in Mexico. Turkey is now the most popular destination for Europeans, largely due to its cultural richness. Angkor Wat in Cambodia, for example, now generates over 30% of the countries foreign exchange and is the largest single contributor to the country’s Gross National Product (GNP). Tourism has grown to over 800,000 visitors per year generating over $900 million in national tourism revenues in 2003.

GHF Priority Conservation Area – Indus Civilization

Saving Our Indus Civilization – UNESCO World Heritage

Above and Below: Rock-cut reservoirs and underground storm water drains showcase the sophistication of early Indus civilization at Dholavira and other sites.

Archaeological Conservation in Dholavira and Lothal
The site of Dholavira, locally known as Kotada, is located on the Khadir Beyt island of Kutch in Western Gujarat. Dholavira was discovered by J. P. Joshi in 1966 and as later excavated by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), led by Dr. R. S. Bisht, Director, who conducted five field seasons of excavations at this semi-arid site in the 1990s.

Dholavira is one of the five largest sites of the Harappan civilization. The layout and construction of the Acropolis makes it the most impressive and imposing complex in the city. It towers over the southwestern portion of the city and is enclosed by double rows of ramparts. Measuring about 770 m eastwest and 615 m north-south, a ratio of 5:4. The city of Dholavira is divisible into three parts – the citadel, the middle town and the lower town. The citadel can again be divided in two parts, which have been named by archaeologists as the 'castle' and the 'bailey'.

Dholavira is the most monumental Indus site in India and has huge potential for tourism, conservation and economic development. It’s stone construction means that results of conservation investment by GHF and the Indian government will have lasting impact with minimal deterioration. Excavation during the 1980s and 90s at Dholavira has exposed approximately 10% of the entire archaeological site, and is in urgent need of conservation and stabilization investment.

Future archaeological research and conservation must be on a much higher level international scientific standard using India’s best experts and international support, the latest technology and and intergrated program of development, research, museum, publishing and conservation. Despite years of work at Dholavira, India’s most important Indus site, no research has been published and archaeological methods and data collected are highly suspect.

High-Priority Conservation and Development Activities (ASI and Gujarat)
• Archaeological conservation
• Acquisition of land
• Landscaping & environmental development
• Tourism movement plan and interpretation system
• Audio-guided tourist movement
• Construction of a model on-site museum
• Tourist Complex for overnight stay
• Widening of road from Chitrod to Dholavira (in progress)
• Construction of kunaharia - Dholavira road across the Rann (in progress)
• Repair to Adesar - Bela road
• Construction of Chaubari - Bamhanka road
• Regular power supply
• Water supply
• Museum & Ethno-Archaeological Park

Above: Lothal, Gujarat Indus Site (2500 BC)

Lothal – A Major Port for Indus Trade and Civilization
Lothal is an important regional center and port-city of this ancient age in the Indus,
making it extremely unique and valuable as an Indus heritage center. Lothal provides
a grid work of streets, housing for the elite and the workers, a sanitation system and
canals, which likely supported up to 30,000 people. Lothal’s location exemplifies the
importance of trade as the glue of early Indus civilization that reached up the Indus
River, and to Mesopotamia’s Ur and other Sumerian cities, as well as to further
distant lands. Indus merchants carried stone seals used to stamp their distinctive
insignia or trademark on clay tags to label their goods. Portrayed on those seals were
animals native to India, including the elephant and the rhinoceros, as well as other
pictographs.

Seasonal flooding that helped nourish the fields of the Indus Valley were also
sometimes catastrophic, causing cities like Mohenjo Daro to be rebuilt numerous
times. These floods may have contributed to the decline of the area after 2000 BC.
While the area remained populous and productive, the cities were abandoned and
long-distance trade withered.

Above: Photos of Lothal from the 1980s after conservation. Today the site has an aura of being nearly abandoned.

GHF Indus Heritage Program - A New Model for Conservation in India
GHF is focusing new attention on desperately needed conservation of India World Heritage sites and is attracting other government and private-sector investments to help meet the expensive challenges in the coming years. The Indus Heritage Trust is one of the first private-sector matching grant programs for UNESCO World Heritage in India and provides a new model for effective conservation for other endangered World Heritage sites in Asia.

GHF Indus Heritage Program – Archaeological Conservation
1. Completion and Approvals of Master Conservation Plans (MCPs)
2. Construction and exhibitions for the Indus Heritage Museum
3. On-site conservation of high-priority archaeological monuments
4. On-site training and skill development for conservation and tourism
5. Outreach and advocacy to bring in matching local, state and national funding
6. Long-term sustainable tourism development to provide economic
opportunities and infrastructure improvements

Global Heritage Fund has been working with the leading conservation architects and archaeologists in India to develop world-class Master Conservation Plans for each site, undertake monument conservation and secure in-country matching funding for conservation and tourism development from private donors and the state and federal government.

Sites excavated by MS University Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, represent the smaller towns and villages that supported the large urban centers. These smaller sites have produced exquisite craft objects in shell, copper, agate and precious metals. They also represent important locations for the interaction between large urban centers and modile pastoral communities who are ven today an important part of the cultural heritage of this region.

Even more important is the relevance of South Asian archaeology in modern times, and the continuing legacies in craft, technology and cultural patterns that enable us to connect the past with the present in exciting ways.

Of special note is the fact that the greater Indus region was home to the largest of the four urban civilizations including Egypt, Mesopotamia and China. Discoveries in Gujarat State suggest a southern coastal network spanning hundreds of miles. Dholavira located on Khadir Island in the Great Rann of Kutchh in Gujarat is the largest excavated site to date, comparable to Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. Dholavira has the best preserved architecture in the Indus world and, unlike the mudbrick construction of Mohenjo-daro or Harappa, is made of cut stone which is a critical factor in its potential for long-term conservation and development.

Establishing The Indus Center in Gujarat
Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) of Baroda is the leading university in India for Indus archaeology and research. MSU Chancellors, the Archaeology Department, and the city of Baroda (Vadodara) have all welcomed GHF to partner in establishing the Smithsonian-class Indus Museum, Research & Education Center.

1. Architectural, Exhibit and Thematic Design
GHF will provide funding and support for conceptual design of the Indus Center including location, architecture, exhibits, multimedia presentation and presentation of Indus civilization. This would result in a Master Plan for the Indus Center including design, themes, exhibits, budget, team and milestones. Partners will include Smithsonian Institution, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, University of Wisconsin, University of Pennsylvania, Charles Correa Associates, others.

2. Development of Museum-Class Exhibits and Conservation, 2D and 3D Digitalization and Photography, and Professional Cataloguing, Storage and Presentation of Indus Artifacts GHF will provide funding and support for the above work to prepare multimedia presentations of the Indus civilization and future Exhibits of the best original artifacts, development of replicas and multimedia displays of Indus Sites, history, technology, peoples, trade and agriculture, art and culture, city planning and urban engineering, and migration and development.

3. International Team of Archaeology Graduate Students at MSU
MSU will host 6-8 international Indus scholars and graduate students in archaeology in the coming years to assist in the above goals 1 and 2.

4. Indus and Harappan Expert Advisory Committee
GHF will support the operations and bi-annual meetings of an Indus and Harappan Expert Committee to advise and support the planning and development of the Indus Center.

Master Conservation Planning
Each GHF Epicenter’s conservation effort is backed by an approved comprehensive Master Conservation Plan (MCP). The MCP is the catalyst for community and stakeholder involvement. GHF ensures that the highest levels of expertise is integrated in the planning process as well as the conservation science used in archaeological conservation and authentic restoration of architecture. GHF conservation planning at each site brings world-class expertise and experience from our GHF Advisory Board and other Indus heritage and archaeological conservation experts.

The Master Conservation Plan incorporates an international approach to heritage and tourism, one that will take into account each site’s spectacular landscape, vernacular buildings of the surrounding villages, the traditional understanding of sacred sites, the monuments and ruins, as well as the needs of local communities.

Under GHF planning, the modern concept of heritage encompasses the entire complex cultural eco-system, blending archeological aspects with environmental (natural landscape) and cultural aspects (traditional ways of life, music, dances, customs and folk arts).

GHF is working to build world-class conservation teams and leadership for each site, provide technology, applications and expertise from our Global Heritage Network, and ensure the highest international standards in conservation science through our proprietary Preservation by Design methodology.

Global Heritage Network (GHN) - Applications and Technology
GHF is providing our Indus Heritage Program the best in planning and conservation technology and applications in the form of a field laboratory which consists of GHF conservation stations with client-side architectural, GIS survey and mapping software, as well as satellite imagery.

GHF applications manage the entire conservation lifecycle from planning and conservation science, investigation, GIS and mapping, site excavation and conservation database and referenced satellite, 3D scan, 2D GIS and mapping and architectural databases. Through GHF’s Global Heritage Network (GHN) program, GHF provides equipment loans and core applications for Planning, GIS/Mapping, Satellite Imagery, Scanning, Architecture/ CAD and Archaeological Conservation. GHN leverages industry-standard applications, public domain imagery and data sources.

GHN Technology and Applications consists of GHN Conservation Stations at each GHF Epicenter with client-side software connected over Internet to GHN Servers and Knowledge Base and Collaboration applications, a conservation and planning database of all GHF Epicenters, Satellite Imagery depository and GIS and Mapping databases. The Global Heritage Network manages the entire conservation lifecycle from planning and conservation science, investigation, GIS and mapping, site excavation and conservation database and referenced satellite, 3D scan, 2D GIS and mapping and architectural databases.