Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c20.s3.t7.4

v1.c20.s3.t7.4

smelting megalithic site in the Vidarbha region. It yielded daggers, spears, axes, nail-parers etc. V.D. Gogte used geophysical method (Deo, 1985: 107) — a modified three probe resistivity survey — to locate an iron-smelting site at Naikund. There were the remains of a furnace built of curved bricks and with a clay pipe for blowing in air, perhaps with the help of leather bellows (fig. 12.4). Gogte calculated that in a single operation this furnace could turn out nearly 3 kg of pure iron out of about 10-12 kg of ore. He further pointed out that the people used local ore. (Deo and Jamkhedkar, 1982; Deo, 1985: 92)