An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c15.s1.27

v1.c15.s1.27

Apart from the use of some materials in certain periods, particular shapes also were in vogue in certain periods and thus provide a clue to relative dating. Barrels, cylinders, sphericals, tubulars, bicones, oblates, tables and multifaceted geometrical shapes are too numerous to be catalogued here. However some shapes are relatively restricted to certain periods. For instance long cylinder is a typical Harappan shape; short barrel circular beads are mostly restricted to between the Maurya and Gupta periods; tubular barrels are extremely rare; barrel tubulars belong mostly to the early historical period; barrel hexagonals occur mostly between the Maurya and Gupta periods; flattened barrěl hexagonal beads are frequent in Maurya-Sātavāhana period; barrel triangular is a typically Mauryan shape; collared barrels rarely occur after the Gupta period; barrel gadroons occur in large numbers in the initial centuries of the Christian era; cylinders with square section occur mostly between the 2nd century b.c. and 2nd century a.d.; short cylinders of composite glass—especially those with lemon-yellow matrix covered with green glass—are a fossil-type of the Sātavāhana period; long truncated bicones do not generally occur in the post-Sātavāhana period; bicone pentagonal beads are restricted mostly to the chronological range of 100 b.c. to a.d. 100; twisted pentagonal bicone or ‘double pentagons’ occur between the 5th century b.c. and 1st century a.d.; collared tablets occur mostly in the Sātavāhana levels; gadrooned segmented beads of glass occur frequently between the time-span of *c.* 1st century b.c. and 3rd century a.d.; thin discs of steatite, with or without a mid-rib, are a typical Harappan shape; toggle beads occur mostly in the pre-Gupta period; and granulated beads are reported mostly from the 1st-2nd century a.d. horizons. Spacers, though displaying quite a range of shapes, are difficult to date typewise.