My Journey into Archaeology: Childhood Museum Visits to Research

I often wonder when my journey into archaeology actually began. There was no single moment when I decided that this was what I wanted to do. In fact, I don't think I even knew what archaeology actually was until I was in my matriculation.

My parents took me to museums whenever we travelled. One of my earliest memories is from the Indian Museum in Kolkata. I don't remember exactly, but they say I was fascinated by the objects and sculptures. I think I simply liked being surrounded by things that weren't the regular things that I saw around me. Museums, or in fact my visit to the Sarnath archaeology site, felt almost magical to me — a little like stepping into another time.

Illustration generated in collaboration with MidJourney.

I must have been between eight and ten years of age then.

I was probably in class five or six when I first became curious about the past. My introduction to history came through watching Discovery and National Geographic with Maa. I would sit and watch programmes about ancient civilisations, monuments, excavations, and people who lived thousands of years ago.

I was actually fascinated by the hosts and the archaeologists, who — or so it appeared to me — would travel around the world, dig up places, and discover new things. I would watch experts from chemistry, biology, etc. also accompany these people to the sites. It was actually ticking all the boxes that I felt excited about — travelling, history, chemistry. By my matriculation (Grade 10), I had a fair bit of an idea what archaeology was and how it worked.

Looking back now, I realise that my parents were perhaps introducing me to history and culture more intentionally than I understood at the time. They were giving me opportunities to see and experience the past. But neither they nor I could have imagined that, fifteen years later, I would be researching rock art.

Today, when I look back at those childhood memories, I see a quiet continuity. The questions have become more complicated, but the curiosity feels much the same. Perhaps that is why archaeology feels less like a career I chose and more like a curiosity I grew into.

What began with family trips, museum visits, television programmes, and a child's fascination with the past eventually brought me to archaeology research. And sometimes I think the little boy who stood fascinated in those museums would be quite surprised to know where that curiosity eventually took him.

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Anindya is a Doctoral Researcher in Archaeology at the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. He has a Master of Arts degree in Ancient Indian History, Culture, and Archaeology, and works on field projects in rock art, human-faunal interactions, and ethnography.