Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c12.s7.4

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.