She stands just 10.5 centimetres tall, one hand on her hip, chin raised, her left arm covered almost to the shoulder in bangles. More than four thousand years after she was made, the “Dancing Girl” is still one of the most recognisable artworks of the ancient world.
The figure was found at Mohenjo-daro in 1926 by the archaeologist Ernest Mackay. Today she is in the collection of the National Museum in New Delhi.
How she was made
The statuette was cast in bronze using the lost-wax method. A model is shaped in wax, covered in clay and heated; the wax melts away, leaving a mould into which molten metal is poured.
Each lost-wax casting is unique, because the mould must be broken to release the object.
Was she really a dancer?
The name was given by early excavators, inspired by her confident pose. Nothing in the archaeology tells us she danced — and some scholars prefer more neutral descriptions.
Why she matters
The figure shows that Indus metalworkers were highly skilled, and it gives a rare glimpse of personal adornment in a civilization that left few portraits of its people.
Next time you see her photograph, look at the bangles: similar ornaments, made of shell, copper and terracotta, have been found across Indus sites.
Sites in this article