Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c12.s7: Furnaces
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c12.s7
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Furnaces
v1.c12.s7.1
Altogether sixteen furnaces, all from Mound F, have been discovered at Harappa. These are of three kinds: (a) part of round pottery jar, (b) cylindrical pits dug in the ground with or without brick lining, (c) pear-shaped pits dug in the ground with or without brick lining. There was only one jar-furnace, Fb, for making potteries. This kind of furnace with charcoal as fuel is still used by gold and silversmiths in India.
v1.c12.s7.2
Furnace Fm is of cylindrical shape. It is paved and lined exclusively with courses of brick-on-edge. The walls are mud plastered and along with ashes a lot of highly vitrified slag was found in it. This indicates fairly intense firing, but no object was recovered in or around it.
v1.c12.s7.3
Furnace Fa is also cylindrical. This type of furnace appears to have been subjected to most intense firing as may be inferred from the fact that its mud walls have actually run down in pencil-like formations of slag. At a lower level is also seen, faintly at the right hand side, the section of a slanting flue which forms an obtuse angle with the body of the furnace. Twenty feet south of this furnace has been recovered a fragmentary earthenware crucible whose contents show that it was used for melting bronze. From inside, the walls are plastered with mud in which straw is added as an adhesive. A window is left at a convenient point whereby the fuel, the metal to be melted together with the crucible are put inside, and the window cover kept at hand.
v1.c12.s7.4
The remaining thirteen furnaces are all pear-shaped in plan. Eight of them (Fe, Fh, Fi, Fj, Fk, Fl, Fo, Fp) are lined with burnt brick, while the remaining five (Fc, Fd, Ff, Fg, Fn) are mere pits dug in the ground. All the eight brick-lined furnaces, were plastered with mud mixed with a quantity of sand in order to resist fusibility. In many furnaces, there is a small rectangular pillar or sometimes wall set at the back and an air passage for the circulation of heat between itself and the back wall. In many places, owing to the intense vitrification, the surface of this brick wall has run down. The furnace was found filled with ashes of light weight, in which some slag was also found. That these furnaces were repeatedly used is clear from the fact that in several instances the original mud and sand plaster, which was generally converted into slag, had to be covered afresh with about half an inch thick layer of similar plaster. Exactly similar pear-shaped furnaces have been found in Mohenjo-Daro.
v1.c12.s7.5
Since nothing was recovered inside these furnaces, we can only guess as to the nature of the articles fired in them. These are hardly likely to have been used for making potteries, since pottery does not require such intense heat as is evident by the vitrification in some of these furnaces, and moreover the furnaces themselves would be inconveniently small for the firing of pottery. More probably these were designed for the casting of metal objects. There is abundant evidence to show that such metal objects were manufactured locally. The furnaces might have been also used for the firing of faience objects such as small vessels, squirrels, rams, beads, sundries for inlay, jewellery of metal and stoneware bangles; as well as for glazing steatite seals, faience, sealing, vessels etc., for putting on bands of coloured frit on some faience vases; for etching carnelian beads by a process which incorporates efficient arrangements for quickly reaching a very high degree of heat and equally rapid cooling arrangements in order to keep the colours bright.
v1.c12.s7.6
Copper jar no. 277 recovered from Mound F contained one hundred weapons, implements, utensils both finished and unfinished. Cast bars, lance-head, bangles, thick sheet of copper with hammer marks must have been manufactured locally. (MSV, 470-73)
v1.c12.s7.7
On the basis of the above discussion, a few conclusions may be drawn regarding the main differences between the two cities or sites: Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa.
v1.c12.s7.8
The excavations at Mohenjo-Daro have shown the impressive varieties of materials which were used there. It is true that in comparison to Mohenjo-Daro we did not get such varieties of materials from Harappa. On the other hand, certain kind of materials used at Harappa were not found at Mohenjo-Daro.
v1.c12.s7.9
Two special items which have been found from Harappa are coral and mica. Use of coral was not at all noticed at Mohenjo-Daro but at Harappa few specimens of coral have been noticed. In the case of mica it may be said that its existence has been marked in the clay at Mohenjo-Daro, but mica as a piece is entirely special in Harappa. In this context, mention may also be made of yellow arsenic found at Harappa.
v1.c12.s7.10
Although the rocks used were more or less similar in both the cities, one or two special types of stone was exclusively used at Harappa. The yellowish limestone was exclusively found from Harappa. Apart from this, grey granite and basalt were to some extent special in Harappa.
v1.c12.s7.11
We have mentioned earlier that the clay of Harappa was slightly different from that of Mohenjo-Daro, because of the admixture of mica in it. Thus we find that the Cemetery H pottery had come into existence with such a fine texture, being more soft and plastic in appearance. Cemetery H potteries probably belong to a somewhat later date. Another thing which is very much peculiar to Harappa is its nature of terracotta animal toys. Different types of toys with different design have been unearthed from here which according to the excavator “are not found at Mohenjo-Daro”.
v1.c12.s7.12
Now, if we turn our attention toward the beads, then we find that there was a prolific use of bead both at Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. The main materials were the same (copper, chalcedony, steatite, agate, faience) etc. In this context we notice that as in Mohenjo-Daro, the use of lapis lazuli was rare at Harappa also. But Mohenjo-daro got few more materials which Harappa did not. Thus we find that in Mohenjo-Daro there were the use of plasma, green feldspar, turquoise, amethyst etc. These materials were most probably imported from far away sites.
v1.c12.s7.13
In the case of minerals and metals it may be noticed that the metals were more or less common in both the cities and probably the sources were identical. The copper chariot was exclusively found from Harappa. Another thing which is very interesting is that śilājit was used at Mohenjo-Daro, but it was not found at Harappa.
v1.c12.s7.14
Compared to Mohenjo-Daro, which was probably the capital city, Harappa was more of a manufacturing centre. As in Mohnejo-Daro, furnaces have been unearthed from Harappa, but here, the furnaces are greater in number, as many as sixteen. These are of different shapes which definitely indicate their different types of functions. Thus, apart from baking the potteries, these must have served to other purposes also. In this context it can be said that the furnaces Fa, Fc and Fj definitely served for the preparation of metal objects, because from these furnaces slag was found and even crucible was also found very near to these furnaces. Even the shape of the furnace also indicates that these were specially built to withstand a high temperature. The excavators concurred that these were designed for the casting of metal objects.
v1.c12.s7.15
Although some evidence of metallurgical activities were noticed in Harappa, extraction of metals such as copper, lead etc. might have been performed elsewhere, and crude metal ingots received at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro for the fabrication of the end-product objects.