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Dancing Girl: Bronze Mortimer Wheeler

The document summarizes several important archaeological finds from the Indus Valley civilization site of Mohenjo-Daro in modern-day Pakistan. It describes the "Dancing Girl" statue that provided insights into their metallurgy skills and culture of dance and entertainment. It also mentions the "Priest-King" soapstone figure found in an ornate building, and seals depicting religious figures like a three-headed proto-Shiva. Finally, it discusses an intricate seven-stranded bronze necklace over 4 feet long believed to be 4,500 years old.

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Ganesh Kale
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110 views1 page

Dancing Girl: Bronze Mortimer Wheeler

The document summarizes several important archaeological finds from the Indus Valley civilization site of Mohenjo-Daro in modern-day Pakistan. It describes the "Dancing Girl" statue that provided insights into their metallurgy skills and culture of dance and entertainment. It also mentions the "Priest-King" soapstone figure found in an ornate building, and seals depicting religious figures like a three-headed proto-Shiva. Finally, it discusses an intricate seven-stranded bronze necklace over 4 feet long believed to be 4,500 years old.

Uploaded by

Ganesh Kale
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Dancing Girl

A bronze statuette dubbed the "Dancing Girl", 10.5 centimetres (4.1 in) high
[14]
and some 4,500
years old, was found in 'HR area' of Mohenjo-daro in 1926.
[14]
In 1973, British archaeologistMortimer
Wheeler described the item as his favorite statuette:
"She's about fifteen years old I should think, not more, but she stands there with bangles all the way
up her arm and nothing else on. A girl perfectly, for the moment, perfectly confident of herself and
the world. There's nothing like her, I think, in the world."
John Marshall, another archeologist at Mohenjo-daro, described the figure as "a young girl, her hand
on her hip in a half-impudent posture, and legs slightly forward as she beats time to the music with
her legs and feet."
[15]
The archaeologist Gregory Possehl said of the statuette, "We may not be
certain that she was a dancer, but she was good at what she did and she knew it". The statue led to
two important discoveries about the civilization: first, that they knew metal blending, casting and
other sophisticated methods of working with ore, and secondly that entertainment, especially dance,
was part of the culture.
[14]

Priest-King[edit]
In 1927, a seated male soapstone figure was found in a building with unusually ornamental
brickwork and a wall-niche. Though there is no evidence that priests or monarchs ruled Mohenjo-
daro, archeologists dubbed this dignified figure a "Priest-King." The sculpture is 17.5 centimetres
(6.9 in) tall and depicts a bearded man with a fillet around his head, an armband, and a cloak
decorated with trefoil patterns that were originally filled with red pigment. The two ends of the fillet
fall along the back. The hair is carefully combed towards the back of the head but no bun is present.
The flat back of the head may have held a separately carved bun, or it could have held a more
elaborate horn and plumed headdress. Two holes beneath the highly stylized ears suggest that a
necklace or other head ornament was attached to the sculpture. The left shoulder is covered with a
cloak decorated with trefoil, double circle and single circle designs that were originally filled with red
pigment. Drill holes in the center of each circle indicate they were made with a specialized drill and
then touched up with a chisel. The eyes are deeply incised and may have held inlay. The upper lip is
shaved, and a short combed beard frames the face.
[citation needed]
Pashupati seal
A seal discovered at the site bears the image of a seated, cross-legged and possibly ithyphallicfigure
surrounded by animals. The figure has been interpreted by some scholars as a yogi, and by others
as a three-headed "proto-Shiva" as "Lord of Animals".
Seven-stranded Mohenjo-daro necklace
Mortimer Wheeler held a special fascination for this artifact and believed the Necklace was at least
4500 years old. The necklace has an S-shaped clasp with seven strands, each over 4ft long, of
bronze-metal bead-like nuggets connecting each arm of the S in filigree. Each bead is less than the
size of a pepper-seed and has many facets. Each strand has between 220 to 230 nuggets and there
are about 1600 nuggets in total. The necklace weighs about 250 grams. It is presently in a private
collection in India, possibly in Shimla.
[citation needed]

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