With such a great cultural history behind the place, we thought this museum would give us a tremendous experience. But sadly it’s not and we’re little disappointed. It’s not about artifacts, I believe the museum houses quite a reasonable collections from the excavates of Arikamedu and fair amount of diversified local cultural representation, the museum building itself is a 100+ years old rich depicting French-Roman architecture. But, what goes wrong is the poor display and maintenance of the rare treasures :(
The museum starts with a display of centuries old pottery debris and burial urns unearthed from the Roman settlement in Arikamedu. There’s collection of old coins, paintings, stones, sand from different parts of archaeological places around there. It also features a stunning show of antique swards, armors, and arms dating back to the ancient Chola and Pallava dynasty of Tamil History.
One unique think that I liked here, was that we could walk through a typical house setup of the colonial era. They have set-up a model living room, bedroom, dressing room, kitchen, dining rooms of the typical French house with the vintage furniture and artifacts collected over the years, that fairly show an idea over the lifestyle of old French people. On the terrace there is a display of century old carriages , trailers and palanquins, which add-up little more worth to the visit.
It took all of just 30 minutes to cover the entire museum. Nevertheless, If history interests you, it’s worth paying a visit. I loved it!
1 Comment to "Pondicherry Archaeological Museum"
All the exhibits are kept at very bad lighting, almost dark everywhere. and of course the place do not have air conditioning and the heat is terrible (at least in October that is when I have visited)
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