The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables c9.s9: 9. A note on the material and production of the objects and on the colour photographs
The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables c9.s9
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9. A note on the material and production of the objects and on the colour photographs
c9.s9.1
Space forbids discussing the material and production of the Indus seals and inscriptions in any detail here; for this the reader is once again referred to the excavation reports. It can only be noted that the great majority of the Indus seals are made of steatite, generally whitish in colour. The seals were first sawed and cut into their forms and then polished; the subject was outlined with a sharp point and then engraved with a drill. Finally the seal was coated with an alkali and heated. It seems that the alkali coating was applied mainly to dark steatite in order to make it white. Heating hardens the steatite, which is a very soft stone, and thus protects it against wear. The various stages of this process can been seen from different examples, the unfinished ones being particularly instructive.⁸⁵
c9.s9.2
⁸⁵ Cf. E. Mackay, Further Excavations at Mohenjo-daro, Delhi 1938, Vol. I, 346ff.; id., Chanhu-daro Excavations 1935-36, New Haven 1943, 145f.
c9.s9.3
The moulded tablets are normally made of terracotta or faience, but there are also a few cast copper tablets (placed at the end), while the incised tablets usually are of steatite or copper.
c9.s9.4
Some selected objects are shown in colour and in as big enlargements as the space allows at the end of the volume. In part, this 16-page selection aims at doing justice to the artistic beauty of some superb pieces of Harappan art, and partially it is intended to convey an idea about the colour and material of the objects.⁸⁶ Naturally some enlargements, such as that of the "Proto-Śiva" seal (M-304), are also meant to help scholars in distinguishing important details. No scale is given, because the relative and absolute size of the objects may be seen from the black-and-white photographs, to which they are keyed.
c9.s9.5
⁸⁶ Of the objects illustrated in the colour photographs, 10 (M-332), 20 (M-453), 23 (M-445) and 26 (H-231) are said to be faience (20 "with a white glossy coat", 23 with traces of green glaze); 21 (M-449), 22 (M-440), 31 (K-89), 32 (K-96) and 35 (Sktd-3) are pottery (21 once coated with dark chocolate coloured slip); and 24-25 (M-534) copper. All the rest are said to be steatite (of different colours), but this remains to be checked by mineralogists.