Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c15.s4.4

v1.c15.s4.4

Spectrographic analysis was made of the above two samples and a copper ore from Khetri in the northern Rajasthan. Hegde found that (a) the following elements were detectable in all the three samples: Cu, Pb, Ni, Co, Bi, Fe, Mn, Zn, Al, Cr, Mo, Ti, Mg, Gd, P, Ca, As, Sb; (b) the following elements were not detectable in any sample: Sn, Au, Ag; and (c) while W and V were present in the ore, these were not detectable in the metal samples. The impurity patterns (a) and (b) led Hegde to suggest that “the copper metal of the artefacts recovered from Ahar was probably smelted from the chalcopyrite ore of the Aravalli region”. (Hegde In Excavations at Ahar, Sankalia, Deo and Ansari, 1969: 226)