Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c11.75

c11.75

These copper tools are interesting from several points of view. The composition of the metal, with its surprisingly high proportion of nickel, should prove to be a valuable pointer to the source of the native ore when more is known about the distribution of impurities in native copper deposits of the Orient. We know that certain copper objects from Mesopotamia had a relatively large proportion of nickel in their composition - two Early Dynastic specimens, from Ur and Kish respectively, had as much as 3.34 and 2.20 per cent., though the average is below this - and a possible source for Sumerian copper, the mountains of Oman, yield an ore with a perceptible nickel content. On the other hand, nickel is sometimes present in the copper used at Mohenjo-daro and Harappā, rising to 9.38 per cent. in one object and to 3.34 in another, and its presence is attested in the ores of Rajputana and Afghanistan. There is, therefore, in the present state of our knowledge an unfortunately wide field over which we can look for a probable origin for the Nal copper: it may be a local Baluchi ore, for ancient copper workings are alleged to exist in that area. The comparatively small amount of arsenic suggests a source different perhaps from that which produced the copper of the Harappā Culture.