Statuette of a bull from the Indus Valley Civilisation. This piece is made from terracotta and adorned with dark stripes across its body and horns. The facial features are painted on, featuring rounded eyes and a special marking on the forehead of the bull. The curving horns tower over the body and the tips are painted black. On the behind, there is a small tail added for detail. There are chips on one horn, a small indentation in the underside of the piece and earthly encrustations throughout. The Indus Valley Civilisation was one of three early and widespread cradles of civilisation along with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. At its peak, the Indus Valley 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. They were accustomed to creating small terracotta figurines, and of those which took the form of zoomorphic characters, the cow was one of the most popular. Measurements: Length~13.3cm, Width~6cm, Height~10cm Provenance: From the SM London collection, 1970s