The Indus Civilization c9.10

c9.10

A somewhat rare type of painted vessel is decorated with manganese paint, the background being either a cream slip or the natural light red, or buff, surface of the jar itself. Sometimes this paint has a distinctly reddish tinge, but for some reason unknown a pure red colour, other than that used for slips, was not favoured as a paint for monochrome pottery. Small vessels painted in polychrome occasionally come to light, but the colours used—red, black, green, and, very rarely, yellow—are, with the exception of the first two, very friable, and they were undoubtedly applied after the jar was baked. This kind of decoration occurs most often on a white slip, but sometimes white is used as a separate colour and the whole design is painted on the natural surface of the ware. Polychrome pottery is, however, very rare, and, apart from two badly damaged vessels, the specimens recovered are all in the form of small sherds, while the only devices now extant are the intersecting circle, the trefoil, and one or two plant designs, none of which resembles in any way the polychrome designs on the pottery of Elam or Sumer.