47 



classed as prehistoric though it is obvious that the people 

 of those days were skilful artizans in gold, bronze, and 

 iron and must have been contemporaries of historic 

 periods in the story of Egypt and Mesopatamia. Ovari 

 is the name of a small fishing village not far distant on 

 the adjacent coast and may possibly be the Ophir of 

 Solomon and the port whereto the fieets of Tarshish 

 sailed to freight home the treasures of India. 



(b) The Former Existence of Bangle Factories 

 IN the Deccan and in Gujarat and Kathiawar. 



I have been unable to obtain any evidence from 

 ancient Indian writings of the existence elsewhere than 

 in the extreme south of the country of any ancient 

 custom of wearing bangles cut from chank shells. 

 Probably such references do exist and, if this be so, I 

 trust the present notes may elicit their quotation 

 by scholars who are familiar with the ancient Sanscrit 

 and Gujarati classics, the most probable sources of 

 information. 



Fortunately, in this apparent absence of written 

 records, archaeology has important evidence to offer, 

 and although it is difficult to date the greater portion of 

 this testimony with any exactitude, it offers irrefutable 

 proof that the industry of chank cutting and the custom 

 of wearing chank bangles had once much less restricted 

 geographical range than at the present day. The largest 

 collection of remains demonstrating this fact is the Foote 

 collection of Indian Prehistoric and Protohistoric Anti- 

 quities in the Madras Government Museum ; the excava- 

 tions made by Mr. A. Rea, Archaeologist to the 

 Madras Government, have further extended our know- 

 ledge of the range of this ancient industry. The former 

 valuable series comprises several thousands of palaeoli- 

 thic and neolithic implements and weapons together 

 with multitudinous fragments of pottery and other 

 artifacts assigned to the neolithic and succeeding prehis- 

 toric periods. For us the main interest centres in the 

 numerous fragments of chank bangles and chank work- 

 shop cuttings and waste represented in the collection. 

 Many of these were found associated with undoubted 

 neolithic stone implements while others were mingled 

 with potsherds of less readily determinable age. The 



