Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c14.s2.t8: Silver
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c14.s2.t8
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Silver
v1.c14.s2.t8.1
Although no silver specimen has been found from Lothal, a good percentage of its use has been revealed from the gold objects and some with copper.
v1.c14.s2.t8.2
The specimen of gold from Lothal has invariably shown the presence of silver and more or less complete absence of copper. There is no doubt that an alloy of gold and silver, not containing copper, was used by the goldsmiths of Lothal. There were similar findings from Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. One pendant from Lothal has given the following result: 66.55 per cent gold and the rest silver. The other pendant which is light yellow has given the following composition: 58.52 per cent gold and the rest silver. From the above data it is clear an alloy of gold and silver containing about 30 per cent and 40 per cent of the silver was used for making pendants. Since the proportion of silver in the pendants compares favourably with that in the native alloy electrum, it would be natural to attribute the source of the material of the pendants to this natural alloy. This view is further supported by the fact that the pendants are completely free from lead as well as copper. Therefore, it seems probale that the alloy was not prepared artificially by mixing metallic gold with metallic silver, but most probably native alloy, electrum was used for making the pendants. As gold has been found associated with silver in these objects, so it would therefore not be unreasonable to assume that alluvial gold was not used by the goldsmiths of Lothal. (Rao, 664-65)
v1.c14.s2.t8.3
In two specimens of Lothal, silver was found considerably contaminated with copper: 54.65 per cent of silver and 2.67 per cent of copper and 86.57 per cent of silver and 7.87 per cent of copper respectively, the former specimen containing 3.29 per cent of iron in addition. Apart from contamination with iron and admixture with copper, these two silver objects have been found to be free from lead and only one of them contains traces of nickel. (Rao, 655)
v1.c14.s2.t8.4
One specimen made of silver (scraper) has been found to contain 71.2 per cent of silver. This object was found to consist of sound metallic core made of silver and the outer layer represented oxidised copper as cuprite. (Rao, 657)