The Indus Civilization c9.51

c9.51

It has been mentioned in another chapter that the use of shell for inlay and small objects as in Sumer was a craft commonly practised at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa also. Curiously enough, mother-of-pearl was not at all popular in these two cities, and articles made of it are extremely rare, perhaps because it is such a brittle material to work, although the early Sumerians seem to have surmounted this difficulty. Several varieties of conch shells were worked in the Indus valley, the interior parts of the shell and the walls being employed in various ways; this hard material was first divided up with a saw, then the patterns for the inlay were first fretted out with a drill and finally finished with a chisel and file. The complete specimens present very much the appearance of ivory and are far better preserved, for they have not suffered nearly so much from the effects of salt in the soil. Ivory was, however, indispensable for certain articles such as tabular dice, hairpins, and the like, for which shell was too brittle and, moreover, not long nor straight enough.