Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c12.107

c12.107

Some indication of what this trade did in fact involve can be gained from the detailed examination and analysis of the various stones and metals used in the Harappā civilization for decorative or utilitarian purposes. From the west bitumen, alabaster, and probably steatite seem likely to have been obtained from Baluchistan; and farther afield Afghanistan may have been a source for silver, though Persia is perhaps a more likely region. From Persia, too, gold may have been obtained, and more certainly silver, lead, and tin. Two semi-precious stones, turquoise and lapis-lazuli, are certainly of Persian or Afghan origin, the latter most probably from Badakshan, famous for its precious stones throughout the centuries, so that the poet Mir, writing in Delhi in the fifteenth century, could naturally say of the features of his beloved: