C. 3rd millennium BC. Indus Valley Civilisation. A large painted bowl with a hemispherical body and ring foot. The bowl, in a terracotta-colour fabric, is covered in a reddish-brown slip with black painted details. On the exterior are three concentric rings and a vertical column formed from geometric shapes and on the interior are four concentric registers of abstract linear decoration. The Indus Valley Civilisation was an important Bronze Age culture which arose in c. 3300 BC and lasted until c. 1300, though its heyday, to which this ceramic vessel belongs, was in the 3rd millennium BC. Cf. N. Satyawadi, 1994. Proto-Historic Pottery of the Indus Valley Civilisation: Study of Painted Motifs, New Delhi. Good condition; on a custom stand. Size: L:125mm / W:380mm ; 2.2kg; Provenance: From an old British collection of Asian Art formed in the 1990 on the UK and European art market.