Context (Field collection)
Catalogue card notes: ‘collected by Colonel Benn early in the present [20th] century in S. Baluchistan about 100-200 miles south of Kelat. It came from grass covered mounds.’ Although no findspot was given when the collection arrived in 1951, the British Museum also has a similar group of material collected by Colonel Benn and donated by him in 1913 (BM 1913,0308) which they list as from Nal [Naal]. It may then be that MAA’s collection is from the same site, and this has been tentatively added to the Place field. Colonel Benn was a political agent in Chagai, Balochistan from 1906-1912, which is likely when both the MAA and British Museum objects were collected.
Event Date 1906
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (Analysis)
Described by the donor, Leila Alice Russell Benn, as ‘Mekrani pottery’. 
Event Date 1951
Author: Lizzy Peneycad

Context (Acquisition Details)
Given by Colonel Robert A.E. Benn to his cousin, Charles Anthony Benn, whose widow, Leila Alice Russell Benn, presented it to the museum.
Event Date 1951
Author: Lizzy Peneycad

Description (Physical description)
Catalogue card (1951.536 A-C): Three straight-sided bowls with sharp carination just above ring foot. All buff ware and wheel made. A: Painted with a band of zig-zag and a band of 'sigma' signs in black. Red paint between the two lines bordering the 'sigma' band. B: Undecorated. Reddish paste. C: Undecorated.'
Event Date 1951
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (Display)
Exhibited: on display in the Clarke Gallery, Case 63, from 1984 until 01/03/2010.
Event Date 1984
Author: Lizzy Peneycad

Context (Display)
Exhibited: on display in the Andrews Gallery, Case 4.13, between 13/04/2012 and 17/02/2020.
Event Date 13/4/2012
Author: Lucie Carreau

Description (Physical description)
Small, straight-sided bowl of fine, orange coloured Nal ware, with a thin, uneven layer of cream paint. The bowl has: a shallow, recessed, pedestal base; a sharp carination near the base of the body; a body with thin, slightly flared walls; a straight, simple rim. Wheel-made.
Event Date 22/9/2023
Author: Lizzy Peneycad