The Indus Civilization c9.37

c9.37

The eyes of all the stone statues made by the Indus Valley people were inlaid with stone or shell, a technique which also prevailed in both Egypt and Sumer. The arms of two of the best preserved statues, both of which are in a crouching posture with one knee raised, are shown as bent, with a hand resting on each knee. In one figure the arm has been partially freed from the body, a feature which is also to be observed in some of the Sumerian statues. Apart from these points of resemblance, however, and the fact that the waves of the hair are indicated, as in contemporary Sumerian sculpture, by chevron lines (Pl. H, Ib), the statuary of the Indus valley resembles that of Sumer very little. The nose, for instance, unlike that of the Sumerian statue, appears normal in size, and so does the mouth, which in the best examples is rendered quite expressive. The ear, however, proved a stumbling-block to the Indus Valley sculptor, for in most cases it is a travesty of nature, although it was always carefully portrayed in Sumer. Another defect is the rendering of the forehead, which is much too low in all the statues, even if allowance be made for the possibility that a low, receding forehead was a racial characteristic of the inhabitants of Mohenjo-daro, which the evidence of the skulls by no means substantiates. Three of the heads are, at any rate, decidedly superior to any contemporary statue from Sumer, and certainly convey the impression that a greater demand for work of this kind would have led to excellent results. Two of the heads have enough character and expression to suggest that they were actual portraits.