Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c11.149

c11.149

When we look beyond India to the ancient civilizations of Western Asia we find clearly defined and most important points of similarity between the Kulli Culture and the lands of Elam and Mesopotamia. The ‘landscape with animals’ frieze on the Kulli pots finds close stylistic parallels on pots known from Susa and Khuzistan and also from the Diyala region near Baghdad, and named, from their use of a bright red paint in addition to black, ‘scarlet ware’ (Fig. 12). On these vessels we find large animals standing about in a landscape of spiky trees, and often with the spaces between their legs or over their heads filled in with smaller figures – usually birds. The animals are not as a rule bulls, but cattle do occur, as well as black buck and goats; in other pots from the Susa region round Musyan there are long files of goat or ibex figures in the abbreviated ‘shorthand’ of the Kulli style. Recent finds of ‘scarlet ware’ at Susa include one pot which shows a war-chariot drawn by an ox depicted