Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c26.s2.7

v1.c26.s2.7

The Indian emphasis was on the ‘gold-like’ brass and not on the zinc metal. The Greeks however used zinc metal as such in a few cases. In the course of the excavation of the Agora in Athens a roll of sheet zinc was found in a sealed deposit dating from the third or second century BC. (Farnsworth et al., 1949) Analysis showed it to be nearly pure zinc with 1.3 per cent lead, 0.06 Cd, 0.016 Fe, 0.005 Cu with traces of Mn, Mg, Sn, Ag, and Sb. A Hellenistic statuette, also from the Agora, but from a mixed deposit, has also been shown to contain more than 99 per cent zinc. (T. Wheeler quoted by Craddock, 1978: 7) Although Needham and Forbes doubted the above evidences on the ground that ‘the pieces were beyond the contemporary technology’ (Craddock, 1981: 18), it is quite possible that the Greeks had carried the material or the technology which had existed in Taxila as early as fourth century BC and possibly much earlier in Rajasthan.