Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c13.s6: Stone Objects
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c13.s6
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Stone Objects
v1.c13.s6.1
Many examples of two different types of mace-heads were unearthed at Chanhu-Daro. The material most commonly used is a hard, cherty limestone, which is grey, light yellow or cream in colour. Sometimes a purplish-grey sandstone and a hard, greenish-black stone were also employed. (MCK, 224)
v1.c13.s6.2
The whetstone which has been found from Chanhu-Daro is an exceptionally well-finished hone, made of a fine grained slate, grey-green in colour. The sides and base of this stone are remarkably plane.
v1.c13.s6.3
The stones which were used for saddle-querns are made of a hard, grey-brown porous rock of igneous origin, and their undersides are invariably rounded and roughly trimmed. (MCK, 226-27)
v1.c13.s6.4
Few recognizable fragments of stone vessels have been recovered at Chanhu-Daro. These are made of light grey sandstone, dark grey sandstone fragment and dark grey steatite. These are well made, but surface finish is not particularly good. (MCK, 139)
v1.c13.s6.5
A certain number of balls of flinty limestone are white, cream or light grey in colour, some beautifully made and others far from round. It would seem that the natural nodules commonly found in limestone formations were used for making them, being rubbed down to the requisite shape. More rarely marbles were made of a softer limestone, light yellow in colour, others were of harder stones, but many of these were not particularly well-finished and do not come up to the standard of the finely made articles found at Mohenjo-Daro. (MCK, 168)
v1.c13.s6.6
Like the evidences for manufacture of beads and seals, evidences for the manufacture of stones have also came into light in course of excavation from Chanhu-Daro. One portion of Mound I yielded interesting objects which had evidently been thrown out of dismantled buildings by quarries. The number of mace-heads found, some of which are unfinished, show that stone-working was one of the crafts that were practised here. Some evidence has also come from Mound II where bead-makers and seal-makers used to live. (MCK, 63)