Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c14.s3.t1: Manufacture of Beads
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c14.s3.t1
- Language
- English
Manufacture of Beads
v1.c14.s3.t1.1
A bead factory with a working platform in the open courtyard surrounded by eleven rooms has been laid bare in Block E near the acropolis. Two earthen jars, one containing 582 carnelian beads and another containing 212 beads of carnelian, shell and steatite, were found embedded in the platform. Several cores, flakes, ground and unbored beads were scattered all over the courtyard and in the rooms around. To the north-east of this factory is a kiln used for baking the raw material and finished product. Another important evidence for suggesting that the mud brick structure with a working platform surrounded by workers' room was a bead-factory is that a flanged drill-bit of bronze used in boring stone beads was found near the factory. (Rao, 580)
v1.c14.s3.t1.2
The Lothal folk also followed almost the same process as is being adopted by the modern lapidaries. At first, the nodules of agate were heated to a smoky colour and the cortex was removed. The core was then reduced to the required size and shape by low-flaking using the pressure-technique. Subsequently by rubbing on slabs of sandstone the surface was smoothened and the edges were rounded off. Polishing might have been done by using haematite granules or fuller's earth in fine chamois leather, after rolling them over a sandstone block. Sand was used as a smoothening medium. Beads were subsequently bored from both sides using flanged drills of bronze and finally heated in the kiln referred to above. (Rao, 581)
v1.c14.s3.t1.3
The kiln used by the lapidaries for heating beads is ovoid on plan; its longer axis being 5 ft and height 1 ft 4 inches. It is not known whether it had a vaulted roof or not. Thin burnt bricks are used for the walls which are mud-plastered along with the floor. The four interconnected flues in the floor of the upper chamber allowed fire to reach the earthen bowls containing pebbles and beads. A huge dump of dehydrated lime seen near the kiln proves conclusively that limestone was used for completely dehydrating steatite. Bannister and Canningball have said in the case of micro-steatite beads from Chanhu-Daro, that the beads must have been dehydrated and then heated to a temperature 1200°C. Lothal is the only Harappan site where evidence of such an elaborate arrangement for large-scale production of beads has been found. Obviously it must have been a very important centre for making beads.
v1.c14.s3.t1.4
In the case of steatite beads the raw material was powdered, made into a paste and rolled into tubes over a thread or wire. These tubes were fired and cut into their sections with a fine wire or saw to obtain disk or cylindrical beads. Marks of cutting with a wire are clearly visible on the disk beads from Lothal. Thicker beads of steatite appear to have been produced by heating raw steatite pieces cut to the required size and shape. The lapidaries of Lothal used very delicate instruments with effective control in fashioning micro-beads of gold of uniform size with a diameter of less than 1/50th of an inch. Great skill has been exhibited by them in covering a small jasper bead with a gold cap on either margin. In the selection of the raw material and the shaping of the beads to bring out prominently the variegated bands in agate, carnelian, chert and jasper they are unequalled by the lapidaries elsewhere. Apart from this, Lothal has yielded the largest number of etched beads. From the fact that it manufactured carnelian beads on a very large scale, its claim for being the first centre wherefrom the technique of etching travelled to other centre is probably justified. (Rao, 581-82) Beck opines that etching must have been done by alkali such as lime and the Harappans were the first to initiate this technique.
v1.c14.s3.t1.5
Besides the above kilns, two more kilns have been noticed at Lothal. One of them situated close to the bead factory in Block F is circular on plan and has two chambers. Its longer axis along the mouth was meant for supply of fuel. Fire reached the upper chamber through four flues all of which are interconnected. There is sufficient evidence to show that this unique type of kiln was used for baking pebble and beads of semi-precious stones. Among the important finds from the kiln are beads in different stages of manufacture, partly baked pebbles, fragment of earthen bowls used as containers for baking the pebbles and finished beads. (Rao, 83)