The Indus Civilization c7.33

c7.33

Bangles and bracelets were commonly worn, for statues of ordinary mortals as well as of deities have both arms ornamented in this way. The materials used were gold, silver, copper, bronze, faience, shell, and even pottery. The gold and silver specimens are penannular in shape and have hollow interiors filled in with either a fibrous or a lac core. Those of copper and bronze are rounded wire slightly flattened on the inside, with the ends sometimes touching or overlapping, while the shell bracelets are usually in the form of broad bands joined together in two or three pieces with cords, or else segments from the walls of very large shells. Faience bracelets are rare, but the specimens range in width from simple rings to wide bands. Pottery would seem a curious material for bracelets, but such ornaments have been found and appear to have been made in a mould and burnt to an excessive hardness. The writer is inclined to think that these bracelets were either made of sacred clay, or intended for a class of people which were not allowed metal ornaments. These pottery bangles are not beautiful, but they are extremely well made, and, in the case of the better preserved ones, are carefully inscribed with one or two minute pictographs, a fact which seems to indicate that they were valued by their owners. With the exception of those made of faience, which are sometimes fluted, or incised with a chevron pattern, these bracelets, save the gold one already referred to, are severely plain.