Nine sherds, painted potsherd
Right, Top row: painting of a ‘Peacock and a hen facing each other’
Sahni documented this potsherd from Mound F, area of parallel walls with a copper nail extractor, several seals, a large copper chisel (Ae 342), terracotta snake (ab 207), miniature earthen pan of a jeweller’s weighing scale (Ab 188), part of a steatite undulating ring coated with white faience (Ab 193), a pierced birdcage with bird coming our of it, and another perched on the side (Ab 554). See ARASI 1924-25, p. 77.
The paintings inform that the sherds are of “Household vessels” (see Vats Pl. LXVII and LXVIII). Among the motifs: pipal tree, interlacing circles, or the hide motif, and animal form. Vats:
“In Mohenjo-daro and the Indus Civilization Dr. Mackay has fully described the pottery of that site; and has discussed the use of the wheel, the probable method of open firing as suggested by the present day practice in Sind and the Panjab, the ingredients of the clay, the use of slips and the technique of manufacture. His remarks on these subjects apply with equal force to the pottery of Harappa which is in all main essentials identical with that of Mohenjo-daro. Indeed, almost every type of pottery from Mohenjo-daro … has been found at Harappa, and the correspondence is so close that it would be superfluous to repeat Dr. Mackay’s descriptions again. On the other hand, the converse is not equally true, since … there are many varieties of vessels found at Harappa, which are not represented at Mohenjo-daro. In colour, the pottery of Harappa, like that of Mohenjo-daro is prevailingly light red and the clay of which it is made, more often that not, has a natural admixture of sand and lime or both, but only in such small quantities that they cannot be easily detected with the naked eye.”
The “distinction between the two classes of pottery [Cemetery H and Household] is equally observable in their paintings which have little or nothing in common with each others” (Vats 1940, p. 275).
“Painted pottery was as popular at Harappa as it was at Mohenjo-daro, but as a rule only fragments of painted wares have survived. In shape, composition, firing, slip, colouring and decoration, Harappa pottery is so similar to that of Mohenjo-daro that Dr. Mackay’s description of the latter' is equally good for the former, and little need be added to it” (ibid, p. 287).
“As at Mohenjodaro, the paintings on our Harappa vessels are invariably arranged in horizontal registers. Sometimes the whole pot is painted … but sometimes only the upper part. In the latter case the lower part was decorated, if at all, with black bands only. The motifs are either simple black bands and dots … or linear and geometrical, but sometimes realistic figures, human as well as animal, also occur. The paintings are nearly always executed in black on a carefully prepared ground of red … “ (ibid, p. 288).
NOTE: The find numbers of the painted sherds written on the back of the photograph: B. 348, AB 208, AB 207, B 352, B 413, A3 LP, P 40.