History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c17.s4.2

v1.c17.s4.2

Table 1 lists some of the C-14 dated ancient mines in India starting from the earliest (so far recorded) 1260 B.C. Rajpura- Dariba in Rajasthan, a mining area which yielded complex ores containing, lead silver, zinc and possibly copper also. The table lists other dated mines which produced metalliferous ores containing Cu, Zn, Pb, Ag, Au etc. Elsewhere, we have listed 38 other mines of copper, definitely ancient though undated (Biswas, A.K., 1991). The chalcolithic cultures of the Mature-and Post- Harappan era produced bronze objects containing tin, the source of which has not been precisely determined. Some tin ore could have been imported from the well-known mines of Afghanistan and Iran during the Harappan era, and again later during the prosperity of Taxila (Chakrabarti, 1979).