Editing Unicorn (section)

===Indus Valley civilization===
A creature with a single horn, conventionally called a unicorn, is the most common image on the [[soapstone]] stamp seals of the [[Bronze Age]] [[Indus Valley Civilisation|Indus Valley civilization]] ("IVC"), from the centuries around 2000 BC. It has a body more like a cow than a horse, and a curved horn that goes forward, then up at the tip.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} The mysterious feature depicted coming down from the front of the back is usually shown; it may represent a harness or other covering. Typically, the unicorn faces a vertical object with at least two stages; this is variously described as a "ritual offering stand", an [[incense burner]], or a manger. The animal is always in profile on [[Indus seal]]s, but the theory that it represents animals with two horns, one hiding the other, is disproved by a (much smaller) number of small [[terracotta]] unicorns, probably toys, and the profile depictions of bulls, where both horns are clearly shown. It is thought that the unicorn was the symbol of a powerful "clan or merchant community", but may also have had some religious significance.

In [[South Asia]], the unicorn is only seen during the IVC period, and disappeared in South Asian art after this. [[Jonathan Mark Kenoyer]] stated the IVC "unicorn" has no "direct connection" with later unicorn motifs observed in other parts of the world; nonetheless, it remains possible that the IVC unicorn had contributed to later myths of fantastical one-horned creatures in [[West Asia]].<ref>[[Jonathan Mark Kenoyer|Kenoyer, J.M.]], catalogue entry in Aruz, Joan (ed), ''Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus'', p. 404 (quoted) and 390 (terracotta), 2003, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=8l9X_3rHFdEC google books]; [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/324062 Metropolitan Museum], "Stamp seal and modern impression: unicorn and incense burner (?)" ca. 2600–1900 B.C.", for harness. "Iconography of the Indus Unicorn: Origins and Legacy", in ''Connections and Complexity:New Approaches to the Archaeology of South Asia'', 2013, Left Coast Press, {{ISBN|9781598746860}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ddRmDAAAQBAJ&dq=Indus+unicorn&pg=PA120 Google Books]</ref>