Charles Masson and the Buddhist Sites of Afghanistan: Explorations, Excavations, Collections 1832–1835.

Elizabeth Errington Charles Masson and the Buddhist Sites of Afghanistan: Explorations, Excavations, Collections 1832- 1835, 2017, 247 pp., £ 40, The British Museum, London In this ground-breaking volume, Elizabeth Errington, with the help of a group of dedicated collaborators who include Piers Baker, Kirstin Leighton-Boyce, and Wannaporn Rienjang, has been able to assemble and publish many of the finds gathered in south-east Afghanistan by Charles Masson between 1833 and 1838, which today are kept in the British Museum. The success of this volume is the result of many years of research and what can only be described as a herculean effort on Errington's part to make sense of the vast assemblage of material that Charles Masson collected. More importantly, because Masson catalogued the associated reliquaries, beads, and other finds so carefully, Errington is able to present these objects within a clear chronological and regional framework grounded in the numismatic tradition. [Extracted from the article]