Understanding the Pyrotechnology of Harappans by Identifying Heat-Induced Altered Minerals from the Harappan Sites

Garima Singh

Department of AIHC and Archaeology, Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, India; garimakksingh@gmail.com

Evidence of rural industrial settlement in the context of Harappan research in South Asia has sporadically been found; therefore, the present work tries to locate the raw material sources and craft manufacturing industrial sites of the Ghaggar region, India. In this study, spectroscopic applications have been used to analyse the soil samples and excavated artefacts collected from the furnaces and kilns during the excavation. The analysis of the control samples was conducted; they were subjected to Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD). It also works adopted the technique of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) for burnt soil samples along with other heat-treated artefacts, such as terracotta objects, steatite beads, slag, and copper fragments collected from the site. This archaeometric approach aims at identifying the occurrence of temperature variation among the furnaces and kilns reported from the Harappan site of Binjor (MSR), Rajasthan, and Tigrana, Haryana. It examines the structural changes of burnt insitu clay plaster, ash and soil collected from reported firing structures in an effort to determine the nature and degree of molecular alteration of soil minerals and possible byproducts. This work will not only help us understand ancient manufacturing techniques but also an insight into Harappan’s environmental conditions which might have influenced these processes.