Bull. Indus Valley, 2600–2400 B.C.

Bull. Indus Valley, 2600–2400 B.C.
Polychrome terracotta.
Measurements: 6.5 x 8.5 cm.
Bull made of polychrome terracotta in red and black, with highly stylized features and anatomy, as is typical of the culture and the period.
The Indus Valley civilization was contemporary with the great civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt, and its economic, technological, and cultural development is comparable to theirs. This civilization, which established the first cities on the Indian subcontinent, likely emerged from the evolution of agricultural communities that had settled along the Indus River and its tributaries during the Neolithic period. Thus, Harappa, which around 3500 B.C. was a small village along the Ravi River, evolved over the course of a thousand years into a large city spanning 150 hectares. This transformation may have been influenced by relations with the urban world of the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, or perhaps trade with that region simply played an important role, driving economic development that made cities necessary as centers of production and exchange; these relationships may also have provided a model of organization and perhaps construction techniques, which in both the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia relied on the use of mud bricks. Whatever its origin, the fact is that between 2600 and 1700 B.C., a technically advanced civilization flourished in the Indus Valley, centered on several large cities that formed the core of a vast territory.