This paper represents as introduction to the work of a contemporary soapstone-cutter living and working between Baluchistan and Sindh. Our interest in his person and profession ultimately resulted from the involvement of both the authors since 1982 in the Surface Evaluation Program carries out at Moenjodaro by the IsMEO-RWTH archaeological team (Jansen and Urban 1984). ... Although the techniques we could observe were relatively simple, and therefore hardly comparable with the image nowadays available for Harappan steatite-working, we have been able to reconstruct a preliminary systemic framework of reference for the analysis of soapstone bead making sequences.
