Member-only story
Projecting Ourselves Onto the Past
How ancient history reflects modern obsessions
James Lewis was more interested in history — and especially old coins — than he was in his day job as an artilleryman in the army of the British East India Company. So he deserted in 1827, changed his name to Charles Masson, and spent years in search of ancient coins from the Greco-Indian kingdoms that existed in central Asia. He traveled all over the region, apparently leaving graffiti above one of the famous Buddhas carved into a cliff at Bamiyan, Afghanistan. In the end, he was very successful, amassing a collection of thousands of coins.
But the most important part of Masson’s 15-year exploration had nothing to do with coins or graffiti. In 1829, he followed tips from local residents that led him to a site in modern-day Punjab, Pakistan. He was the first known European to visit this place, called Harappa. Masson didn’t excavate much at this site, but he did write about it in a book. His writings alerted later archaeologists, both professional and amateur.
Over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, British archaeologists dug at Harappa. In time, they realized that it was just one of many ancient sites in the region. Charles Masson had stumbled across a civilization four millennia old, as ancient as the pyramids in Egypt.
