Speaking Archaeologically Scavenger Hunt 2019

Speaking Archaeologically

Scavenger Hunt 2019

What if, one Sunday, I ask you to visit your city's museum and look at every object housed there in the gallery? I know, you'd counter me with, “Who goes to a Museum on a Sunday!” right?

Rattan Kaur Rainu 

Now what if I tell you, you'll be given a handout with out-of- focus pictures of the objects and you have to run up and down the different galleries of the museum, upload the pictures of the artefacts on Instagram with #SAHUNT2019 within a time limit and whoever finds the maximum number of objects wins the competition? Exciting, isn't it ? Now, won't you surely visit the Museum? To inculcate this habit of exploring the Archaeological jewels housed in the most significant museum of the country, I, with the help of Shriya, organised a Member-run-open-to-all Scavenger Hunt at the National Museum, Delhi.

On January 6, 2019, I hosted the aforementioned event on behalf of Speaking  Archaeologically. Around 21 people participated at this Hunt. Two different sessions were held from 11:00-1:30 followed by prize distribution at 2:00 p.m.

On the day of the Hunt, people turned up with utmost excitement and motivation to win it. I never thought people would have  been this excited and would have such competitive sportsman spirit. So I briefed the participants with the rules for the Hunt, after that the participants rushed to different galleries. A few minutes later, I saw pictures of team C and team A on instagram, it was like these teams were competing against each other. One minute team A is winning and the other minute it was team C with another object.   

A total nail biting competition, but what turned out to be a game changer was that in about 20-30 minutes, Team B rushed over to me, with there handout completely filled. However, their pictures weren't uploaded, which was one of the important criteria to win the competition, so they tried each and everything to upload the pictures and when they successfully completed the task, they became the Winners of the First Session.

In the second session, again, team B won the Hunt hands down. Participants really enjoyed the Hunt.

The participants were interviewed about their experiences from Scavenger Hunt 2019.

Question 1: Why did you attend the Scavenger Hunt 2019? What was your prenotion about it.

Soundarya: I incline towards History and love visiting museums and galleries. I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn and interact with people with similar interests with an added element of fun.

Question 2 : What did you learn from the Scavenger Hunt 2019?

Suhita Jain: That the guards in the museum are extremely knowledgeable.

Diptarka: I learnt a lot. How to observe things and find them out carefully. How to keep calm in moments of tension. And definitely I learnt which artefacts belong to which era in history.

Question 3:  How was your experience?

Reshma Jha: My experience was wonderful, it was my first time when I was involved in something like this and it was a brilliant combination of fun and education!

Soundarya : I enjoyed my time in event it was a fresh vibe in lazy weekend.

The hunt was no doubt a learning experience for me as well from how to handle finances to how to manage a group of 21. This experience was full of nervousness and excitement altogether.