This carnelian bead has been artificially colored with white lines and circles using a special bleaching technique developed by the ancient Harappans. >
The technique for making tiny beads is still practiced by craftsmen today. Mullah Ashoor from Peshawar is seen grinding a string of tiny steatite beads that will later be fired to make them hard >
From different levels of the Ravi phase come these terracotta beads (center string) and hard stone beads made from carnelian, amazonite, and lapis lazuli. >
Ravi phase microbeads of lapis lazuli (top row), amazonite, and carnelian (bottom row) indicate the size and nature of the drills used for perforation. The largest of the illustrated beads is less than one centimeter in diameter. >
The body may have been wrapped in a shroud, and was then placed inside a wooden coffin, which was entombed in a rectangular pit surrounded with burial offerings in pottery vessels. The man was buried wearing a long necklace of 340 graduated steatite… >
These tiny steatite beads were found in the Harappan cemetery and come from an elaborate hair ornament worn by a male individual. Each bead is less than .01 cm long and less than .01 cm diameter. A human hair is shown to give an idea of the minute s… >
