The Early History of Metallurgy in India
The convenient location, as well as the expansive trading routes through and around India made it one of the most influential ancient civilizations in the industrializing of metals and the expansion of metallurgy. Great evidence suggests that some of the wisest most authoritative ancient metallurgists, ones who made startling contributions to the history of early metals, came from India. Commonly used metals such as copper, gold, silver, zinc, iron, mercury, lead, and tin were extracted from the land, smelted from ores, used for elegant and useful products, and traded far and wide beyond the society's boundaries.
From the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia, came metals such as gold and silver, as well as the techniques to transform them into luxurious pieces of jewelry, and other artifacts. Whether it was pounded into sheets, or used as products for trade, gold and silver were among the most precious valuables. Fun fact! A technique called granulation was used to turn melted gold into spheres for jewelry, popular in the late 1st millennium B.C.E.
Another extremely vital metal in the production and trading of India metallurgy was zinc. In fact, the earliest evidence of the creation of zinc was found in the Indian mainland! Early copper artifacts of around the 6th millennium B.C.E. were also reported from former Indus Valley territory in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. There is also some evidence for smelting and mining of copper ores dating back to about the 2nd and 3rd millennium B.C.E.
An earring made through granulation -->