The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c17.85

c17.85

A few other characteristic Harappan pottery motives may be noticed before passing on. Occasional vessels bearing a knobbed decoration, from Mohenjo-daro, are comparable with sherds from Sargonid levels at Tell Asmar in Mesopotamia.⁴ The interior of certain types of dish, including occasional pedestal-dishes or “offering-dishes”, is decorated with concentric rings of incised pattern, imprinted sometimes with a reed, sometimes with a finger-nail, but sometimes certainly with a cogged wheel or roulette⁵—a remarkably early use of a device more familiar in much later Graeco-Roman pottery. It is thought that at Mohenjo-daro this decoration is early, but further evidence is required. A third type of pot worthy of note is a more or less cylindrical vessel perforated all over (fig. 12, 8), a type specially characteristic of the Indus civilization. It has been alternatively identified as a strainer (possibly for pressing curds) and as a brazier, but, though one or two examples have been found in association with ashes, traces of burning are not normally present.⁶ Another type is a bowl with an internal knob on the base, resembling a characteristic type from Jamdat Nasr in Mesopotamia, though no significance need attach to this resemblance. A series of tiny pots with narrow openings is thought to have contained an eye-powder such as antimony; certainly a number of copper or bronze rods 4½–5 ins. long resemble ancient and modern kohl-sticks in the East and doubtless indicate the practice of anointing the eyes for medicinal and decorative purposes.