A buff terracotta bowl, standing on a short foot; painted around the outside with a register of panels of cross-hatched lattice designs and alternating vertical slip lines bordered by bold horizontal bands. Unlike many less expensive examples, the painting is original and untouched.
 
Indus Valley: circa 3000-2500 BC.
 
Condition: complete and intact; with light encrustations.
Diameter at rim 11.6 cms (4.66 ins).
 
The Indus Valley Civilisation extended from what today is northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India and was one of three early and widespread cradles of civilisations along with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Aridification of the region during the 3rd millennium BCE may have been the initial spur for the urbanisation associated with the civilisation, but eventually also reduced the water supply enough to cause its demise, and to scatter its population eastward. At its peak, the Indus Civilisation, which included such sites as Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, may have had a population of over five million who developed new techniques in pottery, seal carving and metallurgy.