Connecting Continents: Indian Ocean Trade and Exchange

This exhibition looking at overseas trade between Asia, East Africa, the Middle East and beyond features commodities from 4,500 years ago to the present day which best represent the impressive distances they have travelled. Many of them were found thousands of miles from their point of origin – Roman jewellery made from South Asian sapphires and garnets, for instance – while some exhibits represent the importance of overseas the traded goods, such as a model boat made entirely of Indonesian cloves which have been bound together with thread. The free exhibition is in Room 69a.