The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c14.20

c14.20

Mace-heads of alabaster, sandstone, cherty-limestone and a hard green-coloured stone resembling slate are not uncommon and were doubtless used as weapons, especially perhaps for individual protection in the jungle. Their perforation is of hour-glass form, bored from both ends, and they were presumably lashed to a handle with leather thongs. The normal shape is lentoid, but pear-shaped and circular examples occur. The general type is widespread in time and space; it is found at Susa, in Egypt, in the Caucasus, and extensively in prehistoric Europe, but its rudimentary character robs its distribution of any certain significance. More distinctive is a bronze or copper mace-head of the late Harappan or Jhukar phase at Chanhu-daro, comparable with Persian examples of the second millennium B.C. (p. 89).