A New Look at Stone Drills of the Indus Valley Tradition

Drilling technology of the Indus Valley Tradition was highly specialized and various types of. chert and jasper were used to drill different types of materials. Earlier s~udies used primarily· macroscopic observations to define features such as the manufacturing technique of drills, the raw materials and ·the mechanics of drilling. These generalizations can be revised given the· discqvery of important workshop areas and -the availability of SEM, XRD and electron microprobe analysis. This paper will summarize the current state -of drilling research and define two categories of drills that were used in antiquity; tapered cylindrical drills and constricted cylindrical drills. .. Directions 'for future research on the relationship between drilling and other' contemporaneous technologies are discussed. Introduction Drilling technologies in general and, more specifically. the perforation of hard stones have been a major topic of research in South and West Asia since the discovery of the ancient Indus Valley '·1 " Civilization in the 1920s and 30s (Figure 1). The urban phase of this culture dates from between 2600 B. C. to. 1900 B.C., and has. technological roots that can be traced back to 6500 B. C. in the early -Neolithic period [1. 2]. Because of the fact that most of the tools. raw materials and man:ufacturing -residues of ancient bead makers are preserved archaeologically. this craft may be efficiently· used by archaeologists for reconstructing_ important aspects of the ancient organization of production [3]. In this article we will examine some of the previous research on prehistoric bead drilling in West and South Asia and propose new terminologies for discussing types of drills used for perforating stone beads during the long history of the Indus Valley Tradition (+6500 B. C. to 1300 B.C.). Two new terms are introduced to differentiate specific varieties of -cylindrical drills with dimple impressions at the distal tip. The term tapered cylindrical drill refers to 'drills made on blades that were generally used for the .decoration of soft stones and the perforation of short beads made from harder stone (Figure 2). Tapered cylindrical drills have a long historical use and are found in a wide range of cultural contexts spanning the entire region from the Mediterranean to the Indus Valley. In contra~t •. constricted cylindrical drills (Figure 3) are a unique form of standardized and ~pecialized tool Mat. Re•• Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 267. 01992 M"terlal. Re.earch Society