History of Indian and Indonesian Art

It has long been known that seals of a type unique in India have been found in the Indus valley Quite recently excavations at two sites, Harappa in the Panjab, and Mohenjo-Daro in Sind, have revealed the existence of extensive city sites with remains of brick buildings by no means of a primitive character, and an abundance of minor antiquities indicating a period of transition from the stone to the copper age. These remains underly those of the Kus^a period, but are not far from the surface; the existence of still lower strata suggests that the Indus valley culture must have had a long previous history in the same area and that it may be regarded as indigenous.

“The more we learn of the copper age”, says Rostovtzeff, “the more important it is seen to be. This epoch created briUiant centres of cultured life all over the world, especially in the Orient. To the centres already known, Elam, Mesopotamia and Egypt, we can now add Turkestan and Northern Caucasus”. And finally the Indus vaUey. It may be remarked too that the further we go back in history, the nearer we come to a common cultural type, the further we advance, the greater the differentiation. The chalcolithic culture was everywhere characterised by matriarchy and a cult of the productive powers of nature, and of a mother goddess; and by a great development of the arts of design. We must now realise that an early culture of this kind once extended from the Mediterranean to the Ganges valley, and that the whole of the Ancient East has behind it this common inheritance.