Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c18.s1.6

v1.c18.s1.6

Having stated the hazards of ore-metal correlation, let us report some of the ‘positive correlations’ obtained by our archaeo-metallurgists. Friedman *et al.* (1966) claimed that with regard to copper artefacts, the elements of silver, arsenic, bismuth, iron, antimony and lead were the most important metallic impurities in relating the metal back to the original type of ore. Following this argument, Agrawal (1971, 1984) suggested that Chanhu-Daro celt and Mohenjo-Daro spearhead were made from Khetri chalcopyrite ore, since all the three materials contained trace impurities of Sb, Pb but not Fe and As.