Indus Valley Stone Ring

White dots in a white ring, on a stone the color of a ripe persimmon.

This ring is Indus Valley, from Pakistan or India, South Asia, of the Bronze Age, 3300 – 1200 BCE. It is etched gold, agate and stone. Indus Valley craftsmen are well known for etched carnelian and agate beads, decorated by painting an alkaline paste onto the stone and firing it to leave permanent white designs. Here a barrel-shaped reddish bead bears a white circle enclosing scattered dots. It is threaded on a smooth gold hoop, with coils of gold wire wrapped at either side of the stone.

Some patterns are worth keeping for five thousand years.