Indus Valley Terracotta Cups with geometric decoration. - 75 mm

Early Bronze Age bowl from the Tepe-Sialk tradition with geometric decoration, ca. 4000–3500 BCE.

Characteristic painted ceramic bowl of the Late Chalcolithic or early 4th millennium BCE, probably from the Iranian highlands and stylistically closely related to the ceramics of Tepe Sialk (Period III).

Made of beige to ochre-colored clay, the bowl has a deep, evenly rounded body with a slightly inset base and a nearly vertical rim. The exterior bears a monochrome dark brown paint with geometrically abstracted decoration. Broad horizontal bands divide the wall; above them, vertical groups of lines, angled, triangular and hook-shaped motifs alternate. The restrained color scheme and the rhythmic arrangement of the geometric elements are characteristic of the highly developed painted ceramics of this period.

An especially close parallel is in the Musée du Louvre (Inv. AO 17811 / S 308): https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010142560 The vessel there, excavated at Tepe Sialk, is catalogued as a deep bowl with geometric decoration of Tepe Sialk III-3 and likewise dated to 4000–3500 BCE. At 7.9 cm in height, it nearly matches the height of the present specimen.

On account of this close typological and chronological agreement, it seems more plausible to place it within the Tepe Sialk cultural sphere or the corresponding ceramic tradition of the Iranian highlands than the broader designation “Indus.”

Culture/Region: Iranian highlands, Tepe-Sialk tradition
Dating: ca. 4000–3500 BCE
Material: beige clay, dark brown monochrome decoration
Dimensions: 75 × 98 × 98 mm

Condition:
Assembled from fragments, a few smaller parts supplemented

Reference:
Musée du Louvre, Département des Antiquités orientales:
https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010142560

Provenance:
Acquired in 2026 from the German art market; previously since the 1990s in a Munich private collection.

The invoice is available and will be provided to the buyer in copy.