Terracotta figure depicting two animals, probably cows, in a yoke.
A fragment of a plaque with flat back, in coarse red terracotta, depicting a frontal view of a vehicle drawn by a pair of yoked bovines, each with a thick ruff-like collar, the whole possible made in a mould. The scene is bordered by a thick half-round band. (see nn3707.8 in this list for an exact, but better preserved equivalent). The bullock cart is sometimes in Buddhist iconography associated with bodhisattvas. The tri-ratnas have been lost from the current object, but the total similarity of it to the piece in nn3707.8 argues convincingly for these devices having been present when the piece was intact. Marked on the back with ‘Kaus’ (Kauśāmbī, Kaushambi Dist, Uttar Pradesh, India). Kauśāmbī may date to as early as the early 1st millennium BCE and was finished by about the 6th century CE. This piece may date to circa the 1st-3rd centuries CE. Archaeological context: presumably unstratified and from a surface collection. Given by Col D H Gordon (1952/3).
