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Priest-King

Karachi, Italy

Priest-King

The Priest-King, in Pakistan often King-Priest, is a small male figure sculpted in steatite found during the excavation of the ruined Bronze Age city of Mohenjo-daro in Sindh, now Pakistan, in 1925 or 1926. It is dated to around 2000–1900 BC, in Mohenjo-daro's Late Period, and is "the most famous st

one sculpture" of the Indus Valley Civilisation ("IVC"). It is now in the collection of the National Museum of Pakistan as NMP 50-852. It is widely admired, as "the sculptor combined naturalistic detail with stylized forms to create a powerful image that appears much bigger than it actually is," and excepting possibly the Pashupati Seal, "nothing has come to symbolize the Indus Civilization better." The sculpture shows a neatly bearded man with a fillet around his head, possibly all that is left of a once-elaborate hairstyle or headdress; his hair is combed back. He wears an armband, and a cloak with drilled trefoil, single circle and double circle motifs, which show traces of red. His eyes might have originally been inlaid. The sculpture is incomplete, broken off at the bottom, and possibly unfinished. Originally it was presumably larger and probably was a full-length seated or kneeling...

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