The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c15.6

c15.6

Other materials used for ornamental purposes by the Harappans include lapis lazuli, turquoise, jade and amazonite. Lapis lazuli is not common; two beads and a "gamesman" of this material are recorded from Mohenjo-daro, three beads and a fragment of inlay from Harappā, and four complete and two unfinished beads from Chanhu-daro. It has been suggested that, as the stone was far more abundantly used in Mesopotamia, the Indus examples may be importations from the west. On the other hand, the unfinished examples at Chanhu-daro point to local manufacture, and the probable source of the material—Badakhshān in north-eastern Afghanistan—is nearer to the Indus than to Mesopotamia. The explanation may perhaps be sought along other lines. At Nāl in southern Baluchistan, where the main occupation appears to be somewhat earlier than the *floruit* of the Indus civilization, several strings of beads composed entirely of lapis lazuli have been found; in Mesopotamia the material was used far more extensively in Early Dynastic than in Sargonid times, i.e. its popularity or availability preceded the maximum extension of the Indus civilization (see below, p. 88). The cause of the diminution of the supplies of lapis lazuli in and after the time of Sargon (*c.* 2350 B.C.) can only be conjectured, but it is not unreasonable to suppose that the scarcity of the material in the Indus cities proceeded from the same cause, and is thus additional evidence for the relatively late date of these cities as we at present know them.