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 (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

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

Description (Physical description)
Catalogue card (1951.543 A-D): 'Four squat wide-shouldered narrow-mouthed pots of buff ware though A and C are of a darker brown ware than is common. All have painted black horizontal lines above the shoulder. All have a short, sharply everted rim. Rims of C and D are damaged.'
Event Date 1951
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Description (Physical description)
Small, squat, wide-bodied, non-necked jar of fine, orange to buff coloured Nal ware, partly coated with brown wash and painted on the upper body with a monochrome design of dark brown horizontal lines. The vessel has: a flat, circular base; a short, sharply curved, almost carinated body; a short, slightly everted rim, mostly missing.
Event Date 25/9/2023
Author: Lizzy Peneycad