| Abstract: |
The Indian subcontinent was one of the ancient metallurgical centres where the Bronze Age bustled in the third millennium BC. The Chalcolithic Age commenced and reached its zenith in the Indus Valley civilization. There are several archaeo-geological evidences to prove that ancient Indians pioneered the art of smelting ore, melting and alloying metals. The bronze articles recovered from Mohanjo-daro, Chanhu-daro, Lothal and Harappa of the Indus Valley civilization bears mute testimony to the metallurgical skills and expertise the ancient Indians possessed. <p>There are innumerable old workings and abandoned mines spread throughout India from which copper ore has been recovered. The relicts of clay furnaces, used to extract copper, and the slag dumps still piled up near ancient mining sites at Khetri and Rajpura-Dariba in north-west India stand as evidence to the existence of ancient metallurgical activity. However, the source of tin obtained by the ancients is still enigmatic, as there are no ancient tin mines or evidence of old tin slags in the vicinity of bronze-making sites in India. Tin ore occurrences discovered recently at Nurango in Bihar, Tosham near Delhi, Bastar district in Chattisgarh and the Koraput district in Orissa have not shown evidence of ancient mining or smelting, although there is interesting, simple, low-technology exploitation of the ores today. It is possible that the majority of the tin needed, and probably arsenic minerals as well, would have been brought from far away. The budding and blossoming of the Bronze Age culture in the Indian subcontinent are examined here through the different perspectives of archaeology, geology and metallurgy.</p>
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