History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c17.s5: E. The need for further studies
History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c17.s5
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E. The need for further studies
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In the beginning of this article we mentioned (A) the nature of evidences related to gems and minerals in ancient India. Four categories of evidences were referred to:
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(i) archaeological excavations and related data,
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(ii) evidences of industrial activities,
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(iii) mining archaeology, and
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(iv) literary evidences.
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We have provided only a glimpse of the first three categories of evidences, the fourth category which is corroborative of the rest, having been exhaustively reviewed elsewhere (Biswas, A.K., 1991). Further studies and research on all the four categories of topics are called for.
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In future, all archaeological excavations should be exhaustive - both vertically as well as horizontally - unearthing all possible material evidences. The artifacts as well as rejects, residues, wastes like slags etc. should be thoroughly examined by sophisticated techniques and equipments like electron microscope. It may be noted that many ancient Indian gems, minerals and metallic artifacts discovered in the 19th and early 20th century have not yet been subjected to phase studies; this is very important and should be done now. Identification of the ancient gems by the earlier mineralogists should be now corroborated by fresh X-ray and electron microscopic studies.
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As we have illustrated in this article, research on the ancient slags is likely to yield rich dividends. Attempts for ore-artifact and ore-slag correlations should be continued as a part of a comprehensive programme and not as an exclusively isolated piece of investigation. Mining archaeology in India is in a state of infancy. We should look for more C-14 dates particularly around the ancient mines which have not been dated so far. A deeper search into the Sanskrit, Pali, other Indian language (such as Tamil) literatures and also into the early Greek and Roman records is likely to enrich our knowledge further vis-a-vis the ancient Indian technologies related to gems and minerals.
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