The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c17.97

c17.97

One of the most significant types amongst the fairly numerous faïence beads has already been noticed. Another is the so-called "segmented" bead, of which about thirty examples have been found at Harappā, some at least in late levels, and a number at Mohenjo-daro and Chanhu-daro (fig. 13, 10–11).⁶ This type is familiar widely in space and time, from Tell Brak in northern Syria in the Jamdat Nasr period (about 3000 B.C.) to Crete and Egypt in Middle Minoan III and the XVIIIth Dynasty.⁷ It is even found in barrows in Wiltshire, where it is regarded as a fixed chronological point in our Middle Bronze Age.¹ Dr P. D. Ritchie has shown by spectrographic analysis that two segmented beads respectively from Knossos and Harappā are absolutely identical in composition, and it is to be presumed therefore that they were derived from the same source approximately at the same time, i.e. about 1600 B.C. But what that source was remains to be discovered.