Carnelian mines in Gujarat.

Carnelian mines in Gujarat. In June-July 2000 a sample collection programme was completed inthe extant carnelian carnelian(kärnēl`yən)or cornelian(kôr–, kər–), variety of red chalcedony, used as a gem. mines of Jhagadia Taluka, Broach District, Gujarat,Western India (FIGURE 1). The predominant rationale behind the fieldworkis an Africanist one. Namely, to obtain modern comparative materialwhich could be elementally analysed and compared with samples ofcarnelian beads Carnelian beads (other variants of the name include Cornelian beads, sadoine, Mecca stone, and pigeon’s blood agate) are a gemstone jewelry made of carnelian quartz. The mineral is found worldwide, but India is reputed for developing the best gemstones. from archaeological contexts in West and West-CentralAfrica. For besides local production of carnelian beads in West Africa West AfricaA region of western Africa between the Sahara Desert and the Gulf of Guinea. It was largely controlled by colonial powers until the 20th century.West African adj. & n. ,it seems that certain examples were also imported via trans-Saharantrade routes, probably from India (Insoll 2000). However, at presentsuch an attribution remains purely hypothetical, based as it is upon thecolour, workmanship, and shapes, resembling the carnelian beadproduction of Western India. Beads known to have been extensivelyexported in the medieval period, the focus here, and of course before(Theunissen et al. 2000). Thus it is hoped that the geochemical analysisof the carnelian samples from Gujarat will either prove or disprove disprove,v to refute or to prove false by affirmative evidence to the contrary. atrade to West Africa. Following a successful pilot study at the NERC NERC Natural Environment Research Council (UK)NERC North American Electric Reliability Corporation (Princeton, New Jersey, USA)NERC Northeast Recycling CouncilNERC National Environment Research Council LA-ICP-MS facility at Kingston University, the full programme ofanalysis will now be completed in co-operation with Dr Dave Polya in thenew LAICP-MS facility at the School of Earth Sciences, University ofManchester The University of Manchester is a university located in Manchester, England. With over 40,000 students studying 500 academic programmes, more than 10,000 staff and an annual income of nearly ��600 million it is the largest single-site University in the United Kingdom and receives . [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The history of carnelian bead making in Western India probablypredates the Harappan period (Allchin 1979: 91). Within the Ratanpor orRatnapura area the precise date of the origins of carnelian working isunclear, but it is perfectly reasonable that the region suppliedHarappan bead-makers. Extraction of carnelian, and in all probabilitymanufacturing of beads, continued in the Ratanpor area during themedieval period (at least until the 15th century for the latteractivity), when its control appears to have shifted from Hindu to Muslimhands (Francis 1986). This was accompanied by a shift in manufacturing(but not extraction) to Khambhat (Cambay), a town better suited fortransport purposes being located at the mouth of the River Mahi where itflows into the Gulf of Khambhat The Gulf of Khambhat (formerly known as the Gulf of Cambay) is an inlet of the Arabian Sea along the west coast of India, in the state of Gujarat. It is about 80 miles in length, and divides the Kathiawar peninsula to the west from the eastern part of Gujarat state on the (Karanth 1992: 61), and thus closer tothe international sea-borne trade which the bead makers supplied (FIGURE2). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Carnelian samples were collected from 10 different locations in theRatanpor area where it occurs as rolled pebbles or nodules in theconglomerates and gravels of the area. These are laid down in thick bedsin the region and can be accessed relatively easily by digging narrowshaft mines into the agate beds (FIGURE 3). This work is completed bythe Bhils, a tribal group in the region, and the epicentre epicentrePoint on the surface of the Earth that is directly above the source (or focus) of an earthquake. There the effects of the earthquake usually are most severe. See also seismology. of thiscarnelian mining area is the Baba or Bawa Ghori hill. A source of thebest types of carnelian in the region, and also the location of theshrine of Baba Ghor, a Muslim saint who is the patron saint of the beadmakers (Francis 1986: 198). Baba Ghor is now also associated with theSiddis, people of African descent who still live in the area, and thoughthey are apparently otherwise unconnected with the bead production andtrade, form an interesting living link with the African continent(FIGURE 4). [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Thus the history of carnelian extraction in Ratanpor region can beseen to be of considerable antiquity, but surprisingly no samples forgeochemical analysis had apparently ever been systematically collectedfrom the workings in the region. In total 118 individual samples wereobtained from Ratanpor, with each of the samples being individuallylogged by its co-ordinates using a GPS unit and given an individualidentification number. Aside from the mines, samples were also collectedfrom material stockpiles. In summary, a body of material is nowavailable which when analysed using LA-ICP-MS, besides hopefullyilluminating the West African trade, will provide a range of elementalcomposition data for all the major sources in this region forcomparative purposes for use by researchers elsewhere. Acknowledgements. Tim Insoll would like to thank Dr DilipChakrabarti for his advice, and both authors would like to thank thenumerous people who gave their assistance and time in the field. References ALLCHIN, B. The agate and carnelian industry of Western India andPakistan, South Asian Archaeology 1975: 91-107. Leiden: Brill. FRANCIS, P., JR. 1986. Baba Ghor and the Ratanpor Rakshisha,Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 29: 198-205. INSOLL, T. (with various contributions). 2000. Urbanism,archaeology and trade. Further observations on the Gao region (Mali).The 1996 fieldseason results. Oxford: British Archaeology Reports.British series 829. KARANTH, R.V. 1992. The ancient gem industry in Cambay, Man andEnvironment 17: 61-70. THEUNISSEN, R., P. GRAVE & G. BAILEY. 2000. Doubts ondiffusion: challenging the assumed Indian origin of Iron Age agate andcarnelian beads in Southeast Asia, World Archaeology 32: 84-105. TIMOTHY INSOLL & KULDEEP BHAN(*) (*) Insoll, School of Art History & Archaeology, University ofManchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, England. Tim.Insoll@man.ac.uk Bhan, Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts Historically the Faculty of Arts was one of the four traditional divisions of the teaching bodies of universities, the others being theology, law and medicine.[1] Nowadays it is a common name for the faculties teaching humanities. References1. , M.S.University, Baroda 390002, Gujarat, India.