Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c10.s4.6

v1.c10.s4.6

The hard stone tools and pointed copper/bronze artefacts facilitated the processing of soft stone materials. A special reference may be made of the alabaster (or gypsum) bowls at Damb Sadaat and Mundigak. Around 5000 BC there was a workshop for soapstone beads at Mehargarh. The steatite-chlorite vases found in the Kulli and Mehi cemeteries in south Baluchistan might have been imported from the Kirman region in Iran-Tepe Yahya and Shahdad — or locally made using the large mines in the Zhob area such as the one 50 km north of Fort Sandeman. (Pithawala, 1952: 202) Small cups and toilet vessels of soft stone like alabaster were hewn or carved out with a tabular drill. These drills could be either a metal tube, or a hollow piece of reed or bamboo and worked with fine sand as the abrasive. (Mackay 1938, I: 323; Sankalia, 1970: 34)