{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O64997"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O64997/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019ME6088/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019ME6088/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2019ME6088","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2019ME6087","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JU2421","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O64997/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O64997","accessionNumber":"IM.69-1939","objectType":"Sculpture","titles":[{"title":"Sculpture","type":"Generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"The head of Buddha has been broken away at the neck. The head has a long oval face with the hair in  bands across the scalp in crescent-shaped loops below a rounded <i>ushnisha</i> with a narrow band at the bottom.  The eye brows are low ridges over the eyes which have  pronounced upper lids and undulating lower lids that slant towards the ears.  The mouth has full lips with a beatific smile.  Two concentric grooves are on the neck.\n      The head emerges out of a wedge-shaped back slab which bears broad chisel marks slanting across it into which traces of mortar adhere.  The ears, too, are carved out from the back slab to which they ramain attached.  There is  a mortice hole on the top of the head towards the rear of the <i>ushnisha</i>, which slopes down towards the back slab behind.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"schist","id":"AAT11626"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Grey Schist","categories":[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Buddhism","id":"THES48984"},{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"}],"styles":[{"text":"Gandharan","id":"AAT18889"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"SSEA","id":"THES48598"},"images":["2019ME6088","2019ME6087","2017JU2421"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"004","id":"THES373767"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Head","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Pakistan","id":"x30015"},"association":{"text":"discovered","id":"x37269"},"note":"Discovered in the debris surrounding  a decayed round <i>stupa </i>(<i>stupa </i>B) on the northern end of the eastern plateau on top of the knoll at Amluk, which lies above the head of the Kandak river that flows into the Swat river on the west side of Barikot, in the present Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan."}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"late 4th century","earliest":"0350-01-01","latest":"0399-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably"}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Evert Barger and Philip Wright","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"22.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"14","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"13","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Presented by Evert Barger, Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Bristol and Philip Wright, V&A Museum, as part of the collection of finds from Amluk excavated during their expedition to the Swat valley in 1938. They noted that this head is quite distinct from all other representations of the Buddha either at Amluk or other familiar Gandharan types with only one other known piece with a find spot of similar style now at the British Museum, which was found at Kafir-Kot ( a few miles away from Amluk) in the Swat Valley, OA 1899.6-9.44,  see Zwalf, W.,<u> A Catalogue of the Gandharan Sculpture in the British Museum</u>, British Museum Press, 1996, 2 vols, No. 42. This head was found among the debris excavated by  Philip Wright from <i>Stupa</i> B, which was found to be very decayed. The <i>stupa</i> lacked the usual square base, having only a round base, fifteen feet in diameter, which stood on a paved terrace surrounded by small <i>stupas</i>, of varying sizes. Only the square bases of these, which varied from five to ten feet square, survived. Barger and Wright suggest that this head bears some resemblance to some of the sandstone heads from Mathura, eg V&amp;A IM3-1927. Zwalf  in his catalogue notes there are other similar sculptures, but none with identified findspots.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Head of Buddha, Grey Schist, Swat valley, Gandhara, 2nd-4th century AD.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Barger, Evert and Wright, Philip, ‘Excavations in Swat and Explorations in the Oxus Territories of Afghanistan, a detailed report of the 1938 expedition’, <u>Memoirs of  the Archaeological Survey of India</u>, Calcutta,1941, reprinted in <u>Asian Arts and Archaeology Series</u>, No. 1, Delhi, 1985, pp.21-22, plate IV, fig. 1, No. 158"},{"reference":{"text":"Haworth-Booth, Mark; Indian Sculpture: A Travelling Exhibition, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 1971","id":"AUTH348838"},"details":"No. 48","free":""}],"production":"Swat Valley, Gandhara","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"Buddhist","id":"AAT73738"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["IM.69-1939"],"accessionNumberNum":"69","accessionNumberPrefix":"IM","accessionYear":1939,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-01-01","recordCreationDate":"2002-05-02","availableToBook":true}}