The aim of this blog is to catalog and study as many ancient beads found in India as possible. The blog will feature high quality images of beads and other related items. Latest discoveries and theories on the bead trade from India will be discussed in length.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Garnet Bead
This is a beautifully worked garnet bead. Garnet is supposed to be one of the harder beads to drill.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Round Agate Bead
This bead would have first been found in a rough state. This rough would have been brought to the manufacturing area. Here the bead would have been chipped to form a round shape. Then the bead was sent for drilling. This bead shows deep concave shapes formed around the perforation. This was created by the drilling process. The hole would have been drilled with a bow around a long stick on whose end a diamond chip would have been stuck. This process is still done in the few surviving bead manufacturers workshops in Kangayam. This bead seems to have been polished after the drilling but not brought to a definite shape as the defect in the stone would have made the polisher reject the stone.
This bead can be dated to being approximately between 300 BCE - 300 AD
The source of this material would have probably been in Gujarat
Sunday, July 11, 2010
The Number Game
When one studies beads and trade of ancient south India, one also wonders at what scale this trade and manufacture was conducted. Through some research and mathematics a staggering figure emerges!
"Three trenches were laid in the bead mound to identify various technological aspects of glass making. Three floor levels were identified in 1.5 m cultural deposit dating between 1st century AD and 3rd century AD. There are nearly 2000 glass beads of various sizes and colours collected from 50 sq.m digging area. The 50 sq.m amounts to 0.25 % of the total bead mound. If one exposes the entire mound of 5.5 ha. area, one may encounter with minimum of a million beads. These too are the refuses left by our ancestors as the best ones were being used or sold. "
- http://heritageindiatrust.org/Porunthal.aspx
This is an excerpt from an excavation report of the Porunthal Excavations. This is an astounding figure. If what is being excavated are just the unsold and rejected beads then one can only speculate what the actual quantities manufactured might be.
It is said that the Romans bought 50 Million Sestertius worth of goods each year from India. Roman trade with India was its peak between 50 BC - 150 AD. This is approximately a 200 year period. 50 Million Sestertius in today's value is approximately 500 million euros. This volume would have had a profound impact on Indian trade and society of that time.
Faceted Quartz Bead
This is a quartz bead found in the Tanjore District. This bead was found in the Cauvery River. The bead is 20 mm x 16mm. It is a faceted shape which tapers down to both ends. The perforation is 1.8mm. The bead is polished but shows some crack and damage due to wear and tear by being in the river. This bead can be placed between 800 BCE - 300 AD
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Garnet Beads
This is a small group of garnet beads found in Karur, TamilNadu. These beads are all polished but have no specific shape. They are all hand drilled and are between 3 - 9mm. Garnets were one of the most abundant semi precious materials to be found in Tamilnadu. These beads probably date between 1st - 6th Century AD.
An interesting aspect of documenting beads is that most of them are found in riverbeds. These beads shown above were found in a river near Karur. Probably the Noyyal river. As opposed to archaeological excavations, these beads only help us to study the varieties and quantities, Drilling patterns and approximate find spots. Since they were found in a river they could have been washed down from any point up-river of the find spot.
Night Photography at Sirudavoor
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Soapstone (Steatite) Bead
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Decorated Carnelian Beads from Sirudavoor
Decorated Carnelian Beads from Sirudavoor
By Ashvin Rajagopalan
After a brief rain spell over Chennai in mid June 2010, my friends and I decided to explore the Megalithic site at Sirudavoor near Thiruporur. Sirudavoor is a small village located 45 kilometers from Chennai in the Kanchipuram District. The Sirudavoor megalithic site is being destroyed by illegal sand quarrying and property development and is disappearing at an alarming rate. About 100 stone circles and dolmens have been destroyed in the last 12 months alone. The illegal sand miners are removing the stone circles for their granite value and the high quality sand and gravel is being sold as land fill and for agricultural purposes in the nearby towns. The quarrying is taking place right through the contents of every stone circle and hundreds of burials are being desecrated. During the quarrying some of the contents of the burials spill on to the ground. This is why visiting the site after the rains is very important as the spilt contents are washed and visible on the surface. My friends and I have been documenting such finds for the last three months.
Stone circles in the process of being destroyed by illegal sand quarrying
As individuals who are voluntarily researching this site and documenting what is being found, our legal rights at this site are very limited. The Sirudavoor Megalithic site is listed as a protected archaeological site by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). This means that no one is allowed to excavate at this site without the direct permission of the Director of Archaeology. The amended Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act of 2010 states that illegal excavation or destruction of any protected site will lead to a fine of Rs.1,00,000 or a jail term of 2 years or both. Therefore, on our first visit after the rains, when we found a small group of decorated carnelian beads and banded agate beads on the surface, we photographed them and left them where we found them. However, after a lot of deliberation and consultations with retired archaeologists we decided to go back the next day, collect them, and hand them over to the ASI. As expected, when we went back the next day, the entire area where the beads were found was further quarried and the beads are now lost forever.
On a subsequent visit, three more beads were found which have now been handed over to the Superintendent of Archaeology, |
Decorated carnelian beads found on the surface.
The story of these Carnelian beads however is a fascinating one. Several questions arise. Who were the people who used these beads? Who made them? How did they get to Sirudavoor? How old are these beads? What were they used for? What can we learn from them?
The overall study of the Sirudavoor site reveals several interesting facts as to the life and culture of the people who inhabited this area over 2500 years ago. So far only burial sites have been found. There are over 750 stone circles and dolmens in an area of about 5 sq. km. They are divided into two groups on either sides of a lake. Both burials appear to originate around a small hillock and move towards the lake. There is no particular pattern that emerges as to the positioning of the stone circles. Work is currently underway to study the possibility that astronomic signs were used to orient the stone circles. There are preliminary indications that most dolmens have an East-West orientation.
Excavations have revealed some interesting aspects of the people who lived in Sirudavoor. Pottery was highly developed and many types have been documented. The burials use coarse terracotta sarcophaguses. Black Ware, Red Ware, Black & Red Ware & Red Slip Ware have been found in large quantities. A crucial piece of evidence is that so far only graffiti has been found on the pottery. Till date no Brahmi script has been found at the site. This allows for a reasonable conclusion that this site was in existence from around 800 BCE – 300 BCE. This site is extremely similar to megalithic sites in the Kodumanal area in Coimbatore District. Perhaps they were both connected.
This brings to focus the theory that the people of these megalithic sites could be called the Pandukal People (Leshnik 1974, Francis 2002). This theory suggests that the people who were buried in these stone circles shared a common ancestry that originated else where, perhaps outside Tamil Nadu. This is derived from the fact that remains of saddles and horse skeletal remains have been found in sites like Kodumanal & Porunthal. Horses are not indigenous to Tamil Nadu and probably came to
Different patterns on Etched Carnelian Beads found on the surface at Sirudavoor. 9 – 11 mm
Working backwards, we know that these carnelian beads were finally laid to rest along with the ritualistic remains of human beings in these megalithic burials around 800 BCE – 300 BCE (iron age) in now what is the small
So where did these decorated carnelian beads come from? To begin with, there are no known carnelian deposits anywhere in Tamil Nadu. It is now known that the closest area where this semi precious stone is found is in northern Karnataka. It is also very commonly found in the
The area around Sirudavoor is rich in iron ore deposits. Many megalithic sites in Tamil Nadu, like Kodumanal, are known to have processed iron and made iron implements. As of date no one has found any evidence of a furnace or crucible in the Thiruporur/Sirudavoor area. A probable theory is that the people in this site traded this raw iron ore for finished iron products elsewhere in the country. Due to Sirudavoor’s proximity to the sea, these people could have been salt & fish traders. Therefore, the people in this megalithic site could have taken the mined iron ore, salt & preserved fish inland towards other sites like Kodumanal in the
This however does not solve the question of where the Carnelian beads came from. Kodumanal was known to be a processing center for Carnelian, Quartz, Garnet and Beryl amongst to most popular and Amethyst, Lapiz & Agate were in lesser quantities. Agate and Lapiz came from
A brief history of decorated carnelian beads The earliest known decorated carnelian beads were dated to be from the Indus Valley & Harrappan excavations (2400 BCE - 1800 BCE). They next appear in megalithic sites around |
What does finding Decorated Carnelian Beads in Sirudavoor mean? The Sirudavoor site till date, in excavations, only produced banded agate beads and decorated carnelian beads. This is a very unique indicator. This means that glass beads were yet to be introduced to this population. This allows allowing us to speculate that this site lost its trade contacts after 300 BCE or that it ran out of iron ore by this time and therefore moved on to another site. Sirudavoor is extremely closely located to several other megalithic sites. Arikamedu is 100 Kilometers from this site. Amritamangalam is about 35 Kilometers from this site. There are a few megalithic burials in the Chengalpet district which are about 30 kilometers away from Sirudavoor. Perhaps these people migrated to those sites?
Perhaps then we can theorize that the people from Sirudavoor, traveled to the Kodumanal sites around
It is amazing to think that the ancient people of Sirudavoor had an active economy with knowledge of trade and far away places. There would have been clearly established trade routes with horses as the chief mode of transport. From the evidence in the burials, Iron implements and Carnelian beads were considered extremely important. Perhaps these beads were considered the equivalent of currency in ancient times before coins were minted.
Micro Etched Carnelian Beads found at Sirudavoor. 2 – 5 mm