Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c18.s2.3

v1.c18.s2.3

In all the six sites visited, the investigators noticed (Hegde *et al.* 1985) mine shafts which were very deep, opening into galleries and narrow tunnels following the natural configuration of ore veins at different levels. There were ventilation holes at regular intervals. These deep shafts probably represented mining activity of later periods; however, there are evidences to believe that some of the mines were worked during the Chalcolithic period. Timber supports recovered from a gallery at a depth 120 metres at Rajpura-Dariba mines in Udaipur District were dated by radiocarbon to 3120 ± 160 years before the present (1987). This date corresponds to the zinc-containing copper artefacts of Atrañjikhera. There are some Mauryan C-14 dates such as 2310 ± 105 B.P. from the Dariba Mines area also.