Treasures from the Indian Ocean

Contrasts and cohesion, convergence and divergence—these pairs of terms capture well the shared histories of societies and cultures around the Indian Ocean world. For thousands of years, people have used shells from maritime mollusks to adorn the human body and as coins or currency.

On one hand, people fashioned a variety of local shell species into a variety of objects. Both Buddhist and Hindu rituals require sounding the sacred conch (shankha), often made from the Turbinella pyrum species particular to Indian Ocean waters. Warriors in Madagascar wore headpieces made of Conus shell discs, whose epicentre for diversity lies in the Indian Ocean. The Tayal people of Taiwan shape shells into earrings, bracelets, and pendants.

At the same time existed a pan-oceanic appreciation of one species of cowrie, the small white money cowrie (Cypraea moneta). This iconic species lives only in the tropical waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, but the main source for trade came from the shallow waters of the Maldive Islands. Greatly valued, this species was traded across the ocean’s breadth. Ancient Egyptians wore cowries as protective talismans; in Ancient China, they served as currency. So precious were cowries that artisans in ancient Egypt imitated them using faience, while in ancient China, they fashioned them from bronze and mother-of-pearl.

These objects will be part of a 2027 ROM original exhibition on the Indian Ocean world and how it profoundly shapes our global past, present, and future.

Sarah Fee is the Senior Curator of Global Fashion & Textiles at ROM.