Bullet Cores
Two bullet cores from which very narrow bladelets have been removed, and which were then discarded. The blades were made by specialists.
Ancient Indus civilization raw materials related objects and locations.
Bladelets
Some of the narrow bladelets discarded by Harappan flint-knappers are only 2-3 millimeters wide. Bladelets were later retouched into insturments in the Indus Valley cities. They were often shaped into microdrills for piercing stone and shell beads.
Excavations
Four Harappan workshops were excavated, including site 480 from which more than 35,000 artefacts were collected. Most of them were debitage flakes, but also included narrow blades, bladelets and accurately made bullet cores.
Soil Sampling
Soil samples were taken for thin section analysis in various areas of the hills to try to understand the climactic variations that took place in the area before, during and after the rise of Harappan culture.
Flint Workshop
Some of the workshops are huge masses of flint debitage (scrap) more than 70 centimeters thick.
Quarry Pit 862
Excavation of site 862 revealed that the pit had been used by Harappan miners down to a depth of 1.30 meters where the flint vein was encountered.
From this pit, a radiocarbon reading of a small charcoal fragment indicated that the mine was exploited
Quarry Pit 862
The excavation of quarry-pit 862 (map) underway with Drs. F. Negrino (archaeologist), C. Ottomano (paleopedologist) and E. Starnini (archaeologist).
Pit 862
The excavation of quarry-pit 862 underway with Drs. F. Negrino (archaeologist), C. Ottomano (paleopedologist) and E. Starnini (archaeologist).
Quarry Pit
The excavation of one of these quarry pits was carried out in February 1995. The excavation took place over a small 2 by 3 meter area facing the Indus Valley.
Aerial View
One of the main minig areas from an altitide of 80 metres. The quarry pits are lighter, semi-circular spots which show areas where sand blown from the neighbouring Thar Desert has been trapped in the quarry depressions.
