474 ANNUAL ItEPORT SINIITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1937 



hcnjo-daro, were quite possibly made at Chaiihu-daro, for large 

 numbers of them were unearthed in all the various stages of njaking. 

 The long rectangular slips of stone struck from the parent nodule 

 were first flaked roughly into shape, then, after careful chipping to 

 remove the angles, they were ground into the required cylindrical 

 form by rubbing on a piece of sandstone, which became deeply grooved 

 in consequence. The beads were bored from both ends with a stone 

 drill, and they finally received a polish that shows the craftsmen of 

 Chanhu-daro to have had long experience in the art of working hard 

 stones. The stone drills that were used, of which a number were 

 found, both whole and broken, are a new discovery; it has hitherto 

 been supposed that in ancient times stone beads were bored by means 

 of a copper drill with the aid of an abrasive. These stone drills, of 

 chert, must themselves have taken considerable time and labor to 

 shape, and as their hardness is about the same as that of the stones 

 used for bead making an abrasive must have been used with them; 

 but whether the latter was emery or some other material we have j^et 

 to discover. 



Beads were also made of softer materials such as steatite; a number 

 of tubular shape, stuck together by tiie salty soil and evidently once 

 contained in a fine basket which had perished, would, if placed together 

 end to end, run 35 to 40 to the inch. How they were shaped and, 

 even more, how they were bored is at present quite incomprehensible. 



Save in their extraordinarily sldllful bead-making and also in the 

 manufacture of weights — a subsi(hary industry — the people of Chanhu- 

 daro made little use of stone for other purposes. Copper was evi- 

 dently so plentiful that stone implements had already been practically 

 discarded. Ribbon-flakes struck from a core of coarse chert were, 

 however, doubtless used as kitchen knives: they were found in many 

 of the houses, together with the cores from which they were struck, 

 and it is evident that the housewife provided herself with simple 

 knives as easily as she discarded them when blunt. 



Stone was occasionally used for mace-heads, both of globular and 

 lentoid shape, for drill-caps, and even for dishes; the latter, however, 

 were both few in number and very clumsily made. They were, 

 moreover, sometimes made of a soft form of alabaster, a stone which 

 docs not withstand corrosion by salt. A large number of rectangular 

 stone palettes with smooth level surfaces were found, but the great 

 majority were broken. They were probably used for preparing 

 cosmetics and may have been placed on the small, roughly made 

 pottery toilet tables \vith four short legs, which also were rarely 

 found intact. 



A remarkable number of toys were found at Chanlm-daro, far too 

 many, it would appear, to have supplied the wants of the child popula- 

 tion there; it is possible that toy-making also was a local industry. 

 Toy vehicles of various shapes made of pottery, mounted on two or 



