Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c23.5

v1.c23.5

Turquoise is a hydrous phosphate of aluminium and copper and has colour varying from sky-blue to apple-green. Only a few Harappan sites such as Mohenjo-Daro, Rahman Dheri and Mehrgarh have yielded turquoise, and it appears that this mineral was not as popular as lapis amongst the Harappans. Only finished beads, and not the raw materials were imported. During pre-historic times, turquoise came from the well-known sources near Nishapur in Iran. Other sources were the mountainous territory of the inner Kyzyl Kum and Kirman (source of callaina or turquoise — Pliny's 37th Book). Shahr-i-Sokhta and Mundigak were the processing centres. (Tosi, 1974) Probably these centres, specially the latter one supplied turquoise beads to Mehrgarh and Harappan sites.