The Indus Civilization c9.34

c9.34

Stone vessels are remarkably scarce, and, in addition, very few have been found undamaged. The majority take the form of shallow bowls, which are simple in shape, clumsy in workmanship, and carved out of the softer stones, such as alabaster, sandstone, limestone, or slate. A few more complex pieces, nearly all of which are alabaster, imitate the pottery, but their interiors are so badly bored that they cannot have been of much use as receptacles. A flat-based tumbler, a little over four inches in height, which was found with a hoard of copper and bronze, is made of the very rare, jade-green crystalline stone called fuchsite, a material at the present time to be found no nearer to Mohenjo-daro than Mysore. In spite of the rarity of the stone, no special care seems to have been taken with this specimen, for it is definitely out of shape and bears quite plainly inside it the marks of the drill that was used to bore it.