Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c13.s3: The Bead Factory with Furnace
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c13.s3
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The Bead Factory with Furnace
v1.c13.s3.1
From the north-western side of room 215 a series of well-built flues, averaging 5-1/2 inches wide by 8 inch high, ran to the other end of the building. Five of these flues have survived and there may have been two or three more. That three other flues at right angles communicated with them had been revealed by the removal of bricks from here in ancient times. The flues were covered by a single course of bricks, and on this pavement there were three compartments of varying size with walls only half a brick thick and standing some 18 inches high. The thinness of the walls of the compartments above the flues together with their small size precludes the possibility of this building having been a hammam or sweat-house. Moreover, the absence of any sign of some great temperature in the flues is a strong evidence that the heat used was very moderate. There was no ash anywhere in the flues and the heat can hardly have come from room 215, where there was no trace of a furnace. The purpose of this building is an interesting problem.
v1.c13.s3.2
A possible clue to its use is presented by the number of beads, many unfinished, that lay scattered about on the earthen floor of room 215. Among them was a concreted mass of minute steatite beads. It had evidently been intended to glaze these and this curious arrangement might have been built for this purpose and then never used. Among the beads found in room 215 there were three copper or bronze knives, a copper pin, a seal, a flake drill, a faience gamesman, a queer shell object and some carnelian nodules. All these were found at a level of 10.4 feet. About a foot lower and in the same room was a shell feeding cup, the copper canister, a shell cone and the flint core which had been used as a rubber. Two large shells appear to indicate that shell-working was also practised in this workshop. On the floor of the passage 286 was a brown steatite seal, which from its colour was apparently unfinished. (MCK, 42-43)
v1.c13.s3.3
The courtyard 297 on the north-eastern side of this building may one day supply the clue to the source of the heat conducted, or intended to be conducted, through the flues; for it appears to have communicated with the interior of the building by an opening just under 2 feet wide that was blocked up at some later date. In this courtyard some most interesting and illuminating finds were made. In the middle of its wide entrance, a large pottery jar was found. A large pan in the north-east contained a number of copper and bronze tools, an ingot of bronze, and bangles and razors all of them products of the metal-worker's craft. A very miscellaneous assortment of most interesting material lay spread over the floor of the court at the average level of 10.4 feet and it looks as if the occupants of this unique building had had to leave the place hurriedly and had never returned. These objects include a seal and an unfinished carved shell ball. A copper chisel also came here from the same level. (MCK, 43)
v1.c13.s3.4
That bead-making was carried on in the immediate neighbourhood is suggested by the findings of a saw and the stone drills that were lying closed by. This saw, an interesting tool, is without teeth, handle or even rivet holes for a handle to be attached. The absence of a toothed edge suggests that it was used exclusively for stone working, possibly to slice nodules of agate or carnelian; some agate bars which were to be converted into beads actually bear saw-marks. To assist its action, an abrasive of some kind, such as powdered quartz or emery would also be necessary. Fragments of soft stone such as alabaster, limestone, and steatite found in the Indus cities show that a workman was rarely able to cut straight through even a soft piece of stone but attacked it from various angles until he was able to break it in the centre of the cuts. (MCK, 49, 179)
v1.c13.s3.5
Thus, it is clear that bead-making was an important source of revenue. The north-eastern side yielded many specimens and the raw materials for bead-making were also unearthed; in several cases nodules of agate showed signs of having been treated with heat. There were also lumps of amethyst, crystal and carnelian. The principal focus of bead-making seems to have been the southern quarter of the city, though this craft was also practised elsewhere. (MCK, 52)