Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c20.s3.t3.13

v1.c20.s3.t3.13

S.C. Ray discovered at Saradkel, 50 km from Ranchi and 9 km from Kunti, an Asura site of Iron Age settlement tentatively dated first-second century AD (Banerjee, 1965: 220-22 and Ghosh, 1989 Vol. 2: 393) A large number of iron objects such as arrowheads, axes with single or double cutting edges, chisels, nails, caltrops, knives and longitudinal ploughshares bespeak the prevalence of a full-fledged iron industry. Also found were hematitic ores, slags and sections of several vertical pits laid into the earth, one metre uniform width, 2-3 metre in depth, described as smelting furnaces. These present a contrast to the cylindrical or cubical clay-built shafts of the Agarias. The presence of punch-marked coin, beads of chalcedony, agate and carnelian, copper objects etc. suggest a complex of the Kuṣāṇa era. It is not clear how and when this Asura culture was replaced by the Muṇḍa tribes. The Muṇḍas continued making wrought iron which the Sanskritists called muṇḍaloha (the variety made by the Muṇḍas). The topic of tribal metallurgical practices, continued right up to the pre-British period, is beyond the purview of our discussion.