A VERY RARE ANCIENT INDUS VALLEY MOHENJO DARO POTTERY VESSEL, CIRCA 3000 BCE. With An Artistic Image ofForeparts of Bulls, Probably one of the Finest Works of this Civilization. Size: 13.5 cm High, 41cm Round the body. The Indus Valleycivilization (Harappan Civilization) was rediscovered in 1920-21 when engraved seals were unearthed in the Punjab province ofPakistan at a site called Harappa, a name which is often used to describe the civilization as a whole. Subsequent excavations atHarappa revealed the size and complexity of this ancient city. Other sites were unearthed as well along the banks of the Indus River,including the equally large city of Mohenjodaro. Through archaeological and historical research, we can now say for certain that ahighly developed urban civilization flourished in the Indian subcontinent over five thousand years ago. Though the Indus Valley scriptremains undeciphered, the numerous seals, statuary, and pottery discovered during excavations, not to mention the urban ruins,have enabled scholars to construct a reasonably plausible account of the Indus Valley civilization.Some kind of centralized state, and certainly fairly extensive town planning, is suggested by the layout of the great cities of Harappa and Mohenjodaro. The same kind ofburnt brick appears to have been used in the construction of buildings in cities that were several hundred miles apart. The weightsand measures also show a very considerable regularity, suggesting that these disparate cities spread out across a vast desertshared a common culture. The Indus Valley people domesticated animals, and harvested various crops, such as cotton, sesame,peas, barley, and cotton. Indus Valley seals have been excavated in far away cities such as Sumer, suggesting that a wealthymerchant class existed, engaged in extensive trading throughout the subcontinent and the Near East.Other than the archaeologicalruins of Harappa and Mohenjodaro, these seals provide the most detailed clues about the character of the Indus Valley people. Bullsand elephants appear on these seals, but the horned bull, most scholars agree, should not be taken to be congruent with Nandi, forthe horned bull appears in numerous Central Asian figures as well. The women portrayed on the seals are shown with elaboratecoiffures, sporting heavy jewelry, suggesting that the Indus Valley people were an urbane people with cultivated tastes and a refinedaesthetic sensibility. A few thousand seals have been discovered in Indus Valley cities, showing some 400 pictographs: too few innumber for the language to have been ideographic, and too many for the language to have been phonetic.

Extremely Fine Quality