The Indus Civilization c8.4

c8.4

With regard to the copper used by the ancient inhabitants of the Indus valley, supplies of this metal may have come from Rajputana or Baluchistan. Dr. Desch has shown, however, that the copper and bronze of the Indus valley, like that of the Sumerians, contains an appreciable amount of nickel, and as Mr. Peake has suggested that a possible source of the Sumerian copper was Oman, where old workings have been found in which the ore is of this type, it has been suggested that this district of Arabia also supplied the Indian cities. The presence of nickel has, however, also been detected in the copper from the old, but still worked, mines of Chota Nagpur in India, and it is perhaps safer assume for the present that the copper used at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa did not come from abroad.