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Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c11.s6.t10: Alabaster

Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c11.s6.t10

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Alabaster

v1.c11.s6.t10.1

True alabaster is a hydrated sulphate of lime but the name was applied in ancient times generally to the carbonate. True alabaster is sufficiently soft to take a scratch from the finger-nail and does not effervesce with hydrochloric acid. Oriental alabaster, the carbonate of lime was used in Ancient Egypt for canopic jars and other objects. Its name may have its origin in the alabastar-ointment vases or perfume bottles which are formerly made out of this stone. It is found as travertine deposited from calcareous springs or as a stalagmite on the floor and walls of limestone caverns. A very beautiful aragonite travertine occurs in considerable quantity 1-1/2 miles west of Topehi on the road to Bamian in Afghanistan. This alabaster is merely a refined and semi-transparent form of gypsum. It occurs largely in all the younger tertiary deposits of Afghanistan. The bed at Dasht-i-safed in Kamard is of the semi-translucent variety known as alabaster and would make a very handsome ornamental stone.

v1.c11.s6.t10.2

Gypsum is plentiful in the neighbourhood of Mohenjo-Daro itself and some suitable fine grained bed as probably available at no great distance from the city. Thick beds of it of sufficient purity are found in the Kirthar range of Sind. Kutch contains large quantities of the mineral, and a certain amount is obtainable in Kathiawar and Rewa Kantha. Gypsum in enormous quantities including massive beds of considerable purity and variety of colour extend along the base of the salt range in the Punjab. The gypsum of Rajputana is mostly impure. All of these local sources may have supplied Mohenjo-Daro with true alabaster. (MS-II, 679)

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