Urbanisation began, supposedly, in the area which archaeologists call the ‘Fertile Crescent’. This region, which spanned the borders of Afro-Eurasia, had a uniquely high concentration of great rivers – the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, Meander, Indus – which lent themselves to man-made irrigation schemes. The so-called ;hydraulic civilisations’ (the term is no longer widely used by archaeologists) had an unprecedented need for co-operation among large numbers of people, in order to construct and manage these schemes, and this, the traditional view states, was the driving force behind as yet unheard-of concentrations of people, in what became the first cities. Hydraulic agriculture had another important benefit: efficiencies of scale required smaller, not larger, numbers of people to be involved in the actual process of farming. This freed up workers for other important state and private projects, resulting in an explosion of art, architecture, and industry. The easternmost of the ‘hydraulic civilisations’, the Indus Valley, was something of a case in point. Their complex hierarchical society produced two of the largest among the early cities. Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were planned cities, with rudimentary plumbing, designated streets, public buildings, and sufficient room for a population of 30,000 to 60,000. Painted pottery and developed sculptural forms abound in this region, which is especially noted for the remarkable variety of decorative schemes and physical forms of their ceramics. However, this florescence was not to last; the gradual aridification of the region, prompted by the slowly changing course of the River Indus itself, prompted the demise of the great Indus cities, and with it, the end of their distinctive culture.

Archaeologists working on Indus Valley religion are somewhat split over what it actually consisted of. The prevailing view among many early scholars was that the Indus Valley was the ultimate origin of Hinduism, and that a kind of proto-Hindu faith flourished there in the Third and Second Millennia BC. Imaginative reconstructions of the Indus Valley hieroglyphs have connected certain radiating and wheel-like symbols with the Hindu deity Indra, who is certainly of great antiquity, though this remains in the realm of pure speculation. Certain features have, however, tentatively been identified: a great male deity; a mother or fertility goddess; the deification or veneration of plants and animals; symbolic representations of the phallus and vulva; and the use of baths and water in religious practice. No temples, shrines, or other firmly identified religious buildings have been discovered, but the sheer immensity of the Great Baths at Mohenjo-Daro have indicated to some that they had a religious, rather than purely hygienic, purpose. Similarly, a number of terracotta figures of females from both Mohenjo-Daro and, especially, Harappa, have been categorised as depictions of the ‘Mother Goddess’, on analogy with numerous representations also tentatively associated with fertility in Europe and the Levant. However, archaeological interpretations of such figures have ranged from grandiose associations with the ‘Mother Goddess’ to more mundane children’s dolls.

This small figure is executed in exquisite detail. The sinuous, flowing line of her legs. The gentle arch of her back, the curve of her pendulous breasts, all seem to relate to an aesthetic thousands of years later than the figure itself, recalling the works of Brancusi and Barbara Hepworth. The neck of the figure is adorned with an elaborate collar-style necklace, and what would appear to be a second choker-style necklace, indicated by an incised zig-zag line, which rests higher up the neck. The face is produced in the traditional pinched manner, presumably by the fingers of the artist in the wet clay, and bears the long nose and wide round eyes common to Indus Valley terracottas. However, the facial features are entirely more dainty and feminine than is often the case, implying a significantly great quality of artisan. A slight indication of the arms folded under the breasts, across the abdomen, is given, though the actual detail of the arms is dispensed with due to space between the hunched knees and the torso. As with many so-called ‘fertility figures’, the hips, buttocks, and breasts are all exaggerated, especially in comparison to the small proportions of the head. This emphasis may support her identification as a ‘Mother Goddess’, emphasising those features associated with the bearing and raising of children. We are, however, unable to say with any certainty: was she a venerated deity? Or was she an Indus Valley Barbie?