Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c11.s3: Tabulation: Different Metallic Objects
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c11.s3
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Tabulation: Different Metallic Objects
v1.c11.s3.1
Various metal objects have been unearthed in the course of excavation at Mohenjo-Daro. These metal objects were mainly made of copper and bronze. The objects which were made of copper are hook, axe, sword, knife, spearhead, pan, dish, chisel, vase, scale pan, bangle, canister, awl, saw, lance head, razor, cones, dagger, ring, spoon, reamer, kohl-stick, sickle, casting, broken ingot, scale beam, fish-hook, copper lump, needle. The bronze objects are spearhead, mirror, vase, axe, pan, saw, chisel, dagger, axe-adze, fish-hook, scale pans, ornament, spacer, hook, knife, kohl pot. (MCK, 441-94)
v1.c11.s3.2
Apart from the above-mentioned things, there were few other metal objects which Sir Marshall found in course of his excavation at Mohenjo-Daro. These are copper and bronze vessels including censur, fluting, piece of copper handle, dish and cover of cast bronze, small vessel of beaten copper, bronze bowl of the same type, bronze flask, jar cover beaten from very thin copper sheet, bronze cover, simple copper bowl with plain edge, copper pan, silver vase, copper blade axes, few bronze blade axes, long and narrow axes both of copper and bronze, short broad axes (copper and bronze), spear and lance heads, copper arrowheads, knives and daggers of both copper and bronze, copper leather cutter, bronze razor and saw, copper sickle shaped blade, bronze fish-hook, copper awls and reamers, copper needles, round copper rod, copper finger rings, bronze ear-rings, copper bracelets, copper jar handle, copper bull, copper bird, cast bronze heads, bronze spacer, copper tube, bronze necklace spacers, copper and bronze chain. (MS-II, 488-508)
v1.c11.s3.3
Gold and silver were evidently by no means rare metals at Mohenjo-Daro. We find pure gold as well as a kind of electrum which may be either natural or artificial. Bronze and copper were also used in the manufacture of spacers and terminals for strings of beads. But the favourite material for beads was chalcedony in all its forms, carnelian being specially common and artificially treated to enhance its colour. At Mohenjo-Daro, fillets were worn by both sexes around the head. It was a thin ribbon of either gold or silver, whose ends were tied at the back of the head by means of a thread. (MS-II, 504)
v1.c11.s3.4
The gold beads which were used by the inhabitants of Mohenjo-Daro are minute and either globular or cylindrical in form. A necklace found from HR area comprises of flat gold beads, beads of onyx, green feldspar and turquoise matrix and small globular gold beads. Silver was used more freely than gold at Mohenjo-Daro. Pending further analysis of the silver objects made by the Indus people, we are uncertain as to from what sources the metal was obtained and what ores were used. Generally silver is commonly found in the form of sulphide or chloride mixed with other metals, e.g. lead, zinc or copper, but a certain amount of knowledge and skill is necessary to reduce it to its metallic state. Silver frequently occurs in small quantities in conjunction with lead as in argentiferous galena. Lead is by no means rare at Mohenjo-Daro, and it may be that silver was extracted from lead ore, for Hamid found a small trace of lead in a sample of silver submitted to him; the analysis is:
v1.c11.s3.5
| Silver p.c. | ........ 94.52 |
| Lead | ........ 0.42 |
| Copper | ........ 3.68 |
| Insolubles (silver chloride etc.) | ........ 0.85 |
| Total | ........ 99.47 |
v1.c11.s3.6
Hamid suggests that the ‘cupellation’ process may have been used for the extraction of silver from its ores, and that the presence of copper is due to adulteration. Sana Ullah however suggested that the parent ore was contaminated with copper. He referred to cerussite found in Baluchistan which is frequently associated with cuprite.
v1.c11.s3.7
At Mohenjo-Daro, some of the gold is of a very light hue and it closely resembles electrum. This might of course be due to the admixture of some other metal with the gold to harden as well as to cheapen it. The above analysis shows a very high proportion of silver and no trace of gold: which again suggests that unlike the earliest Egyptian silver, that of Mohenjo-Daro was extracted from an ore. If this was so, the people of Mohenjo-Daro, with whom must be coupled those of Harappa, had evidently considerable knowledge of metallurgy.
v1.c11.s3.8
Edwin Pascoe suggests that in the ancient times, lead was extensively mined in various parts of India, chiefly on account of the silver associated with it. Taking into consideration therefore the presence of lead in the sample of silver analysed by Hamid, it seems more likely that it was from argentiferous galena that the silver found at Mohenjo-Daro was extracted. This process of extraction of silver from lead is fairly simple. But unless the galena is exceptionally rich in silver, large quantities would have to be treated to obtain sufficient quantity of the metal. (MS-II, 524)