Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c11.134

c11.134

A very important group of vessels carved out of soft stone comes from Mehi, and, as we shall see, has the most interesting connexions not only with the Harappā Culture to the east but also with Mesopotamia to the west (Fig. 10). There are several types of vessel represented: small cylindrical pots between 2 and 3 inches across and a couple of inches or less deep; a larger one, 4 inches in diameter, divided into four compartments; another, also in four compartments, but square; and some simple cups, one unfinished. The more elaborate pots are decorated with fine engraved patterns of chevrons and hatched triangles, and seem likely to have held cosmetics such as eye-paint or ointment of some kind, like the alabaster box of ointment in the New Testament story. Now pots similar to these from Mehi appear in the sites near Bampur and in Sistan, already mentioned as showing in their pottery types evidence of Kulli contacts, and in both places imitations of the stone in hard grey pottery are also found, recalling the fragment from Shahi-tump. When we come to discuss the connexions of the Kulli Culture with Mesopotamia we shall see how important these stone pots are. A fragment of a circular vessel was found at Mohenjo-daro in the earliest settlement reached, and part of a square one in a later occupation level. On the whole, these vessels