The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c17.106

c17.106

Decorated carnelian beads, though not numerous, occur at all three excavated Indus sites and have close counterparts in Mesopotamia. They have been classified into two main groups: I, white on red, and II, black on a white base (very rarely, black on red).³ Beads of type I are the more common and are made by drawing a pattern on the stone with a solution of alkali (generally soda), and then heating the stone until the alkali enters into it, thus making a permanent white design (fig. 13, 5). In type II the stone is flooded with the alkali and a black pattern is drawn on top of the white, probably with a solution of copper nitrate. Scarcely more than half-a-dozen examples of type II have come from the Indus, but the technique is known from Mesopotamia and as far afield as Damascus. Of type I, “eye” beads and beads decorated with figure-of-eight circles and rectilinear lozenge-patterns are identical at Mohenjo-daro, Chanhu-daro, Ur (“Royal Tombs”), Kish, and Tell Asmar (Sargonid period),¹ and must derive from a common source.