Iberian Peninsula to the indus

participation in this trading sphere. The discovery of stamp seals with Indus and 
Oxus connections at the site of Konar South broadens the picture of presumably 
overland interaction previously suggested evidence such as an Oxus crenellated 
seal at Harappa, the impression of a compartmented seal at Mohenjodaro, a pottery 
impression of a compartmented seal depicting a zebu at Shahr-i-Sokhta and another 
1
“Vase à la cachette” – a pottery jar 
and lid containing a hoard of copper 
alloy artefacts and calcite vessels
Susa, Iran
Late III millennium BC
Musée du Louvre, Paris

---

51
50
zebu seal found at Nausharo in Baluchistan. Reinforcing the famous Sargonic text 
noting “
Ships from Meluhha, Magan, and Dilmun made fast at the dock of Akkad” 
the glyptic connections between Konar Sanal and sites such as Gilund in India have 
been interpreted by Pittman as evidence for a maritime route connecting to a land 
corridor into inland Iran. 
iMagery of interaction
With the advent of urban centres of civilization, the visual arts developed culturally 
distinctive features but certain similar forms of expression emerged across the en-
tirety of the ancient world to capture the potency of the divine, supernatural world. 
Major divinities in the Mesopotamian sphere are represented in human form but 
come to be distinguished from them by their horned crowns, tufted fleecy attire as 
well as specific attributes and animals that symbolize their presence. Some of these 
features were transmitted eastward, particularly the tufted garment worn by seated 
females on East Iranian seals, a silver vessel inscribed in Linear Elamite with the 
name of Puzur-Inshushinak, a Bactria-Margiana silver pin, as well as seated female 
composite sculptures made of chlorite and calcite, some from Oxus burials and do-
mestic contexts, with numerous and varied types lacking provenance. The sculptures 
exhibit elaborate hairstyles but, unlike related images of seated females on some East 
Iranian seals, lack horns or other headdresses that would certainly identify them as 
deities. In contrast to the clearly divine females in tufted garments on Bactrian com-