Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c21.s1.2

v1.c21.s1.2

Dikshit (1952) surveyed the patterns of the beads in Ahicchatra. Among the stone beads, agate and carnelian constituted the largest number. A large majority of the former is banded. The spherical beads are distributed over all the strata, with their dates ranging from 300 BC to AD 1100. The long barrel circular beads dated around AD 350 resembled similar ones at Kauśāmbī, Taxila and Valabhi. There was an early specimen of a fine leech-shaped bead with interchanging bands of black and white. Such beads were found at Harappa, the Mauryan strata in Bhir Mound at Taxila and during the early centuries of the Christian era at Sirkap. The most popular shapes of the carnelian beads at Ahicchatra were spherical and long barrel circular.