Indian Antiquary Vol 34

SR No.: 032526
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 548
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

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236
[OCTOBER, 1905.
The copper objects found at the fourteen localities named fall readily into seven classes, as follows:
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
A. Weapons and Tools.
Flat celts.
1. 2.
Bar-celts.
3. Swords and daggers.
4. Harpoon- or spear-heads.
5. Arrow-heads..
B. Miscellaneous.
6. Rings.
7. Human figure.
I proceed to discuss in some detail the characteristics of each class.
The celts from Upper India found at Mathura, Chandpur (Bijnor), Mainpuri, and Bithûr, examples of which are shown in Plates I., II., and IV., are all, with one exception, of the kind known to archeologists as flat celts,' extremely primitive in form, closely imitating common stone models, and obviously referable to a period when metal was only beginning to supersede stone. The shouldered celt from the Midnâpur District in Eastern Bengal (Plate II., fig. 6) is similar on the whole to the unfinished implements found in the Hazaribagh District, and is perhaps related to the shouldered stone celts which occur in the same region and in Burma. The Midnâpar specimen may also be regarded as a modification of certain broad types in the Gungeria hoard, and does not differ very much from figure 1 of Mr. Read's plate. The single celt found in Sind was apparently, so far as can be judged from the description, of primitive lithic form, intermediate between the two Mainpuri specimens figured in Plate II.
The numerous, flat oelts in the Gungeria hoard exhibit great variety, and no two are exactly alike. They may be arranged in three main classes, namely, (1) wedge-shaped, or triangular with the apex truncated (Read, Plate VII., figs. 2, 3, 8); (2) broad, with lunette edge, and an incipient shoulder (ibid. figs. 1, 6, 9); (3) with narrow stem, and expanded splayed edge (ibid. figs. 5, 13; and the Dublin specimens in Plate V. of this paper). The first class is simply copied from stone models, whereas the third is a distinctively metallic form, much more suited for any metallic material than for stone.
The long crowbar-like implements, or bar-celts,' with a curved chisel edge at the lower end, which were found in considerable numbers at Gangeria, are peculiar to India. One was included in the Rajpur (Bijnor) find; and one of the Gangeria specimens, figured by Mr. Bloomfield, was serrated on both sides of the handle, so that it could serve as a saw, in addition to its other uses. Four of these strange implements are in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, and the following description of the largest by Dr. Anderson will help the reader to appreciate the meaning of the figures in the plates:
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"Ga 1. A copper instrument, weighing 6 lb. 8 oz., and resembling a huge chisel in form. "It measures 2390 in length. Its upper end has a diameter of 0"-90, with a breadth of "2"-60 across the expanded, slightly rounded cutting edge. The sides are flat, with "a maximum thickness of 080, the upper end being only 030, but each side contracts "as it reaches the cutting edge. One surface of the instrument is decidedly convex, and the "opposite markedly concave, except in its lower sixth. The sides very gradually diverge, and "at 6" from the upper end, the breadth is about the same as at 18", but within 1" 50 of the "cutting edge, the expansion is sudden. The marks of the hammer by which this instrument I was hammered out are still very apparent. The cutting edge is blunt, having a thickness of "nearly 0"-20."
It is evident that such a massive tool might have been used for various purposes, agricultural or other, and that it would have been serviceable as a hoe.