Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c19.s5.t3.10

v1.c19.s5.t3.10

This iron industry must have maintained a number of black-smiths. Another important class of skilled workers would have been that of carpenters, since several items like axe, nails, clamps, chisels, and borers apparently belong to their tool-kit. The presence of arrowheads and spearheads were probably used in both war and hunting. Though the presence of cultivated wheat, rice, barley and pulses has been shown during this period, it is surprising that not a single iron implement irrevocably associated with agriculture has been found so far. The association of iron with the painted gray ware has how been attested from other sites. Atrañjikhera has yielded what is so far the earliest reported find of iron, placed stratigraphically in twelfth century BC. (Gaur 1983, 219-20)