Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "147417",
    "label": "Seal with Unicorn and Inscription",
    "core": "obj",
    "dtoType": "object"
}

{
    "id": "147417",
    "contentType": "object",
    "title": "Seal with Unicorn and Inscription",
    "description": "Indus Valley seals appear to have been hung on a string that passed through a boss on the reverse side. This animal, carved with detailed markings around his neck and forequarters, has his head positioned over an object on a stand that may be interpreted as an altar or brazier or censer; it is not known whether it is for offerings to or sacrifice of the animal.",
    "date": "c. 2000 BCE",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1973.161",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q60756084"
    ],
    "genreSpecific": [
        "Seals"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.161/1973.161_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.161/1973.161_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.161/1973.161_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Overall: 3.5 x 3.6 cm (1 3/8 x 1 7/16 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "Pakistan, Indus Valley civilization"
    ],
    "accession": "1973.161"
}

{
    "tec": "steatite",
    "tombstone": "Seal with Unicorn and Inscription, c. 2000 BCE. Pakistan, Indus Valley civilization. Steatite; overall: 3.5 x 3.6 cm (1 3/8 x 1 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1973.161",
    "collection": "Indian Art - Indus Valley",
    "didYouKnow": "Specialists disagree as to whether single-horned bovines actually lived during the time of the Indus Valley Civilization, four thousand years ago.",
    "citations": [
        {
            "citation": "\"The Year in Review for 1973.\" <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 61, no. 2 (1974): 31-78.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: no. 194, p. 79",
            "url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152513"
        },
        {
            "citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 286",
            "url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n306"
        },
        {
            "citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 3",
            "url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1991/page/n19"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. <em>Masterworks of Asian Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 106-107"
        }
    ],
    "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1973.161",
    "creditline": "Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund",
    "updatedAt": "2026-05-29 07:33:29.525000",
    "imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.161/1973.161_print.jpg",
    "sourceId": 147417,
    "dept": "Indian and Southeast Asian Art",
    "coll": "Indian Art - Indus Valley",
    "med": "steatite",
    "thumbnail_url": null,
    "image_url": null
}

{
    "seq": 1,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.161/1973.161_web.jpg",
    "mediaId": "5a5bc8916bfc3f39"
}