The Archaeology Box contains fragments of Gertrude B´s Iran expeditions.
In 1893 she wrote to her mother in Europe:
“I never knew what a desert was until I arrived in Iran!”
The place she was writing about was the Dasht-e Kavir, Iran’s Great Salt Desert, where Gertrude B. joined nomads and collected objects made from lithium salts. Today, female nomads still migrate through Iran.They wear amazingly colourful clothes, much jewellery and no chadors.
In contrast to people who settled, nomads made medical use of the Pumumba plant that was found beyond the gates of cities. Chewing this plant enabled its user to distinguish between sensible and less sensible ways of living. Today, the Pumumba plant is in danger of extinction worldwide.
Female nomads taught Gertrude B. to treat plants and animals with respect and to live life according to changes in temperature rather than world politics.
Gertude B. described these nomadic wisdoms in letters that she later published in the West.
The Archaeology Box was made a century after her suicide.