Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c11.57

c11.57

The painted ornament on the two groups of pottery appears at first sight to present a bewildering complexity of motifs, but there are certain main classifications which simplify the issue. Designs representing animal or plant forms are absent on Amri ware, but on the other hand are typical on Nal pots. An Amri sherd with part of the representation of an ox from Tando Rahim Khan, and a possible second example from Chauro serve merely to emphasize the total absence at all other sites except where (as shown below) it is derived from Kulli ware. Again, the material from Nal not only has motifs peculiar to itself, but lacks several patterns which appear farther south at Nundara and other sites and also in Amri ware. The decorative motifs may therefore be divided conveniently into two heads - first, motifs common to Amri and the southern Nal culture sites (such as Nundara), with a small sub-group of motifs peculiar to Amri itself, and, secondly, motifs common to all Nal sites but not present at Amri, and a subdivision of motifs peculiar to the Nal cemetery itself. All motifs are firmly outlined in a black or brownish paint applied with a stiff brush. Red paint is used as a secondary colour in Amri and the Nundara group of sites, and at Nal itself and a few other sites this red paint is augmented by yellow, blue, and green pigments to form an elaborate polychrome style. This use of blue and yellow is very remarkable, as it is almost unknown elsewhere in prehistoric Western Asia.