Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c12.125

c12.125

The smaller weights were certainly used by jewellers and bead-makers, and many were in fact found in a bead-workers’ shop at Chanhu-daro. It has been suggested that as they are never marked with any sign to represent the weight, they may have been used among a merchant population largely ignorant of the art of writing or written arithmetic, but this seems a little unlikely. The way in which this weight system was preserved or enforced throughout the whole area of Harappā settlement and from beginning to end of the known duration of the culture is remarkable.