Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c10.s1.t2: Lithic Objects

v1.c10.s1.t2.1

From Period I comes the first evidence of lithic tools; stone tools including grinding stones and small flint blades and flakes are found. The artefacts recovered from Period I are most abundant — flint tools alone are 20,000 in number. Geometrically shaped flint bladelets such as trapezes and triangles represent 4 per cent of the total. In the Period III the number of lithic tools was increased. Stone implements including blades, bladelets, burins, notched blades, truncated blades, borers, sickles, ring-stones and grinding stones are of prominence. This is again found in the Period VI; almost the same lithic materials have been brought to light with a few microliths added with it. Thus the lithic industry survived at the site till the middle of third millennium BC. Flint implement included blades, bladelets, microliths, sickle elements, lunates, triangles, trapezes, burins, scrapers and drills. On the whole, the excavations at Mehargarh has unearthed 2052 stone objects. Of the total assemblage tools, cores and waste constitute 13.32 per cent (276), 2.77 per cent (57) and 83.36 per cent (1721) respectively.