Mohenjo-Daro: Large tripod pot, Mohenjo-daro, museum

As with the cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the pot is India's most basic artifact, However stone or metal implements may change, to the Indian pots and pot forms remain constant, Even the conception of the pot is consistent throughout Indian history, it is never empty, but always 'contains' space, Many types of pots were constructed to be sculptures in themselves: pots containing offerings were often of this sort, The example pictured here, however, is a food-storage pot and is not disguised as anything else, Geometric patterns occur at the same period as do more naturalistic animal figures in Indus pottery suggesting that both motifs were generally regarded as mere decoration and were not relegated to specifically meaningful roles, Geometric motifs also occur with animals on the same pots in some examples, Use of the tripod base is not peculiar to the Indus culture as the same sort also appears in Neolithic China during the Pre-Shang period