Dancing Girl is a prehistoric bronze sculpture made in lost-wax casting about c. 2300–1751 BC in the Indus Valley Civilisation city of Mohenjo-daro (in modern-day Pakistan), which was one of the earliest cities. The statue is 10.5 centimetres (4.1 in) tall, and depicts a nude young woman or girl with stylized ornaments, standing in a confident, naturalistic pose. Dancing Girl is highly regarded as a work of art.

In 2016, a Pakistani barrister, Javed Iqbal Jaffery, petitioned the Lahore High Court for the return of the statue, claiming that it had been “taken from Pakistan 60 years ago on the request of the National Arts Council in Delhi but never returned”. According to him, the Dancing Girl was to Pakistan what Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was to Europe. However, no public request to India has been made by the Pakistani government.

  • SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
    241·
    3 days ago

    In 1973, British archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler described the item as his favourite statuette:

    She’s about fifteen years old I should think, not more, but she stands there with bangles all the way up her arm and nothing else on. A girl perfectly, for the moment, perfectly confident of herself and the world. There’s nothing like her, I think, in the world.

      • lemmyman@lemmy.worldEnglish
        12·
        3 days ago

        Honestly reminded me of that one sketch in Epsteins birthday book by that one guy

    • morto@piefed.socialEnglish
      61·
      3 days ago

      How can people guess the age of the portrayed girl just by looking at the statuette? or is there more contextual information?

      • SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
        151·
        3 days ago

        I’m not sure. But there’s very little information around this.

        Breast size might be a factor if its by looks alone. Or the body shape more generally.

        Edit.

        Since the Indus valley script is undeciphered to this day. Theres no context to be had.

        I presume it was a combination of poetic licence and an experts guess.

  • SanctimoniousApeEnglish
    45·
    3 days ago

    She really dancing, tho? Looks a bit to me like she’s about to assume the position to take a pee or dump.

    Yes - I know I’m crass and ignorant. Lighten up.

    • rnercle@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      6·
      3 days ago

      To the American IVC specialist Jonathan Kenoyer, the reading of the figure as a dancer is “based on a colonial British perception of Indian dancers, but it more likely represents a woman carrying an offering” (which he also thinks the second figure is doing), although most sources, such as the National Museum of India, continue to see her as a dancer.

      from the Wikipedia page linked by @SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com

      • SanctimoniousApeEnglish
        15·
        3 days ago

        Thanks for that (believe it or not, the effort actually is appreciated), but you do realize my comment was a joke, right? That’s why I said “lighten up” - it was for those too serious to recognize it as such.

        • rnercle@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          2·
          2 days ago

          i kept reading because i too can’t see a dancer in that figure 🤷

          but then imagine a figurine of a twerk, found a thousand years from now, without any context to explain what’s happening 😀

    • SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      51·
      3 days ago

      Probably not dancing. That’s very likely just an oriental view of things. That name isn’t appreciated but its stuck around in English especially.

      But probably not about to take a dump either I’d say.

      My theory based on nothing but vibes is that its probably a God. But very vibey this assumption