Peacock Power Lecture

The Peacock Moves West: From Babylon to Rome

This talk is free. Registration (with a $10 refundable deposit) is required.

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Peacocks are a familiar feature in Middle Eastern and European art, appearing on a range of media, from medieval pottery to art deco tiles. But they are not native to these regions. This talk explores the earliest westward movements of peafowl from the Indian subcontinent to the Middle East and the Mediterranean, examining how these birds were perceived and adopted by local cultures, including those of Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome. In doing so, it traces how an imported species became woven into local visual vocabularies and accrued cultural meanings distinct from those in its place of origin.
 

About the Speaker


Dr. Sureshkumar Muthukumaran is assistant professor of history in the Department of History, National University of Singapore. His work focuses on pre-modern interactions in ancient Afro-Eurasia, with particular attention to long-distance connectivity. He uses the anthropogenic mobility of cultivated plants and other biological materials to understand cross-cultural exchanges and the movements of people through space and time. He is the author of Tropical Turn: Agricultural Innovations in the Ancient Middle East and the Mediterranean (2023), and co-author of the British Museum’s Ancient India: Living Traditions (2025).


About the Moderator


Diane Chee is Curator (Peranakan) at the Asian Civilisations Museum and the Peranakan Museum. She worked on the revamp of the Peranakan Museum’s permanent galleries in 2023, and curated the special exhibition Peacock Power: Beauty and Symbolism Across Cultures. Her current research focuses on expressions of Peranakan identity and intangible cultural heritage across Southeast Asia. She holds an MA in Asian Studies from Leiden University, the Netherlands.


^{Images from top to bottom:
Irish carpet, early 20th century, Scotland, Peranakan Museum
Painting of a peacock, c. 50 BCE-79 CE, Villa of Poppaea, Oplontis, Torre Annunziata, Italy. Image courtesy of Dr Sureshkumar Muthukumaran}