Chapter 4: The Rock and Mineral Artifact Assemblage at Harappa | Download PDF
New Introductory Paragraph by Randall Law, 2024
Harappa’s rock and mineral artifact assemblage is large and diverse. In this chapter, the entire
assemblage is categorized, quantified, periodized and spatially contextualized.
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THE ROCK AND MINERAL ARTIFACT ASSEMBLAGE AT HARAPPA
Chapter introduction – Organizing and presenting the rock and mineral assemblage
The rock and mineral artifact assemblage at Harappa is large. More than 56,000 individual items made of stone or metal have been tabulated since excavations by the HARP began in 1986. It is also very diverse. Around 40 distinct kinds of rocks and minerals are represented among the materials recovered at the site (Law 2001, Law 2005b: 113-114). The first purpose of this chapter is to organize and present this huge and highly varied body of data in a way that allows it to be examined on multiple scales. In order to make that possible, the different materials in the assemblage are placed into manageable categories that I call “varieties.” Each variety is then discussed in terms of the general range of material types it encompasses, the quantities in which those materials are found at Harappa, how they are spatially distributed across the site and the chronological contexts with which they are associated. In the concluding sections of this chapter, all of that information is evaluated and then used to address one of the stated aims of this study, which is to examine Harappa’s rock and mineral assemblage as a single entity composed of many different elements that may vary over space and time.
The eight chapters that immediately follow this one each focus on identifying the acquisition networks of one particular rock and mineral variety used at Harappa. The second, but no less important, purpose of this chapter is to provide pertinent details on the remaining varieties in the assemblage, which are not featured elsewhere in the book. Although these other varieties are not presently the subject of geologic provenience studies, simply identifying where in the Greater Indus region (Figure 4.1) they do and do not occur provides valuable information regarding the probable extent and direction of Harappa’s rock and mineral acquisition networks during the chronological phases from which they were recovered. Doing this also helps to draw attention to specific regions and/or types of geological formations from which multiple varieties of rocks and minerals may have been derived. Although the results of the geologic provenience studies conducted for this study sometimes indicate a certain material variety or varieties probably came from a particular region, it is useful to know what other rocks and minerals found at the site were available in that region and may have also come from that region.
The final purpose of the chapter is to provide details relating to the identification or characterization of certain rocks and minerals in the assemblage. Many material varieties could be easily identified on the basis of their macroscopic appearance alone. For others, however, some sort of assessment of their physical properties, whether by using a simple method (such as specific gravity or hardness testing) or a more sophisticated one (XRD or EMPA), was required. Also, the nature and correct identification of a few varieties of stone in the assemblage has been (and will probably continue to be) debated. The characterizations made here can at least help to narrow down the probable material types of those varieties and their likely geologic source or sources.
The rest of Chapter 4 is in the attached PDF below.
Images
Figure 4.1 Regions, sources and sites discussed in this chapter.
Figure 4.2 The composition of Harappa's rock & mineral artifact assemblage. Percentages based on 56350 tabulated rock and mineral artifacts.
Figure 4.3 The five major rock and mineral varieties at Harappa.
Figure 4.4 Minor rock and mineral varieties at Harappa.
Figure 4.5 Basalt "touchstones" or kasoti stones for testing gold purity. Basalt cobble (H2000/2194-51) from Harappa excavations (top left). Jeweler in Lahore holding a basalt kasoti stone (right). Streaking a gold ornament across a kasoti stone to test its purity (bottom left).
Figure 4.6 Sang-i-Miriam (fossiliferous limestone) [A] Inlay, Lahore Fort, Pakistan. [B] Truncated conical amulet and worked block, Harappa. [C] Sang-i-Miriam at Habur, Jaisalmer District, Rajasthan. [D] Sang-i-Miriam at Khadir Island, Kutch, Gujarat.
Figure 4.7 Miscellaneous rock and mineral varieties at Harappa.
Figure 4.8 Harappa site plan with numbered trenches and excavation areas where rock or mineral artifacts have been recovered.
Figure 4.9 Distribution of Harappa’s rock and mineral artifact assemblage among the major areas of the site (based on all 56,350 artifacts).
Figure 4.10 Distribution of the rock and mineral assemblage through each chronological phase and by excavation areas. Percentages based upon number of artifacts from secure contexts (total n = 32,365) and number of excavation lots containing stone artifacts (total n = 3024). Excavation areas list by Trench number or abbreviation (C = Cemetery, S = Sarai, TP = test pit).
Figure 4.11 Temporal and spatial distribution of Harappa’s rock and mineral assemblage. Percentages calculated by the number of artifacts recovered from secure contexts in walled mounds only (cemetery/off-mound artifacts excluded).
Figure 4.12 Distribution of rock and mineral varieties by period and by mound or other* areas *(C = Cemetery, S = Sarai)
Figure 4.13 Map showing the nearest sources of the major, minor and miscellaneous rock and mineral varieties found at Harappa (numbers and symbols correspond to varieties listed in column one of Figure 4.12).
The Chapter section titles are:
Determining the composition of the rock and mineral artifact assemblage
Major rock and mineral varieties
Steatite
Microcrystalline silicates
Chert
Agate-Jasper
Siliciclastic sedimentary rocks
Copper and copper minerals
Minor rock and mineral varieties
Vesuvianite-Grossular
Igneous and Metamorphic rocks
Gypsum
Limestone
Chalk
Variegated and fossiliferous limestone
Lapis Lazuli
Crystalline quartz
Gold
“Ernestite”
Amazonite
“Ochre” minerals
Lead minerals
Serpentine
Miscellaneous rock and mineral varieties
Almandine garnet
Calcite
Fluorite
Fossils
Kaolinite claystone
Mica
Nephrite jade
Prehnite
Sulfur
Tourmaline
Turquoise
Material varieties at Harappa known only from previous excavations
Silver
Arsenical minerals: Löllingite and Orpiment
Fuller’s Earth
Spatial and temporal aspects of Harappa’s rock and mineral assemblage
Contextualizing the rock and mineral assemblage
The spatial and temporal distribution of the rock and mineral assemblage
Spatial and temporal variations in the rock and mineral assemblage
Interpretation of the rock and mineral assemblage’s composition and variability
Chapter conclusion
