Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c26.s3.t2: Some Other Zinc-Ore Mines
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c26.s3.t2
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Some Other Zinc-Ore Mines
v1.c26.s3.t2.1
In Zawar, the Mochia mine (*fig.* 18.1) is separated by the gorge of the River Tiri from Balaria, and has a series of parallel, almost vertical ore-bearing beds outcropping as a high ridge for a strike length of nearly 7 km. Most of the ridge is characterised by trench type workings, or by inclines and shallow shafts, exploiting richest individual beds. Ancient workings were found down almost to river level and showed iron gads, a draw hoe for filling baskets, an iron pestle, woven basketwork, rope and timber. The later part of the working was more recent; Balaria Mine yielded a post-medieval date.
v1.c26.s3.t2.2
Boroi Magra Mine ridge (fig. 18.1) has a number of shallow workings, and deeper ones have been revealed by boreholes. Small mortars were cut into the rock near shafts, as a means of crushing ore down to coarse sand size. It is not clear whether washing technique or any means of beneficiation, apart from hand-picking was employed after crushing in the mortars.
v1.c26.s3.t2.3
The earliest C-14 datings in the Zawar Mines are 430 ± 100 BC of the PRL 932 sample from the Zawar Mala Mine and 380 ± 50 BC of the BM 2381 sample from the Mochia Mine. (Paliwal et al.) Similar datings from Rajpura-Dariba (e.g. 375 BC), Rampura-Agucha (370 BC) etc. (vide Table 17.1) confirm the widespread underground mining of lead-zinc ores in the southern Rajasthan during the fifth-fourth centuries BC onwards.
v1.c26.s3.t2.4
There are subsequent C-14 datings in the said mining area: 250 BC, 200, 170, 140, 120 BC, AD 60, 110, AD 150. The history of Zawar is interwoven with the colourful past of the former state of Mewar (Udaipur). An inscription dating to the seventh century AD found at Samoli in southern Mewar refers to the arrival of a merchant in the area and of his starting of a mine at Zawar, then known as Arandyagire. Inscriptions on old temples constructed in and around old Zawar tell of mining and working of the deposits in the seventh century AD, and of the full flourishing of the industry during thirteenth century AD onwards. (Paliwal et al.)