I agree with the analysis of TE Potts (Potts, TF, 1994, Mesopotamia and the East. An archaeological and historical stuydy of foreign relations ca. 3400-2000 BCE, Oxford Committee for Archaeology Monograph 37, Oxford) that the tin for the tin-bronzes of ANE was sourced from the East. I further venture to posit that the tin came from the largest tin belt of the globe, through seafaring merchants of Ancient Far East (the Himalayan river basins of Mekong, Irrawaddy and Salween) mediated by Ancient India trade guilds of 4th to 2nd millennia BCE. See. Maritime Meluhha Tin Road links Far East and Near East -- from Hanoi to Haifa creating the Bronze Age revolution https://tinyurl.com/y9sfw4f8 This hypothesis is a work in process.
A remarkable feature of the high-tin bronze mirrors from 3rd millennium BCE is that they are made using cire-perdue (lost-wax) technique of moulding alloys. The same technique is used on the Indus Script Hypertexts on Dong Son/Karen Bronze drums of Ancient Far East.
A tribute to the inventive genius of the Baluchistan metal-smiths of the period
Piggott, 1961, Prehistoric India, Harmondsworth, p. 112. Female figure with breasts, with arms akimbo. Compares with the handle of bronze mirror found in Barbar temple whish shows a male figure with arms joined on the chest in a worshipful pose.
Bronze mirror handle from Barbar Temple, Bahrain (After illustration by Glob, PV, 1954, Temples at Barbar, Kuml 4:142- 53, fig. 6) Another remarkable figure in bronze is a bird (After fig. 7 ibid.)
Kuml: Journal of the Jutland Archaeological Society
Nagaraja Rao notes that this handle resembles a mirror from the Kulli site of Mehi in Baluchistan.
(Stein, A., 1931, An archaeological tour in Gedrosia,Memoirs of ASI 43,: pi.32. Mehi II, 1.2.a; Possehl 1986: 48, Mehi II.1.2.a). These objects are similar to the head of the figure handle in the Mehi example is actually the face of the mirror itself. (Julian Reade, 2013, Indian Ocean in Antiquity, Routledge, p.26). These comments of Julian Reade have to be seen in the context of the artifacts with Indus Script hypertexts discovered in Kulli culture (Mehi). Kulli culture provides indication of working with magnetite, ferrite ore and with alloys of copper with high tin content resulting in the bronze mirrors. At Mehi were found several decorated chlorite vessels, imported from Tepe Yahya and attesting trade contacts with the Eastern Iran.Copper and bronze was known. These are indications that Kulli culture artisans were trade partners with Sarasvati Civilization.
Metallurgy of Zinc, High-tin Bronze and Gold in Indian Antiquity: Methodological Aspects (Sharada Srinivasan, 2016)
Indian Journal of History of Science, 51.1 (2016) 22-32
http://insa.nic.in/writereaddata/UpLoadedFiles/IJHS/Vol51_2016_1_Art05.pdf
Abstract There are inherent challenges in attempting to explore the trajectory of knowledge production vis-a-vis the use of metals in antiquity. Metallurgical innovations, falling as they would have largely done in the domain of empirical knowledge and expertise, would not necessarily have left a systematic written record in the sense of knowledge production. This enquiry is perhaps even more convoluted in the Indian context where in the first place, there are not many detailed records that have readily come to light concerning mining and metallurgy and in the second place, not much systematic archaeometallurgical research has been undertaken. Nevertheless, this paper attempts to demonstrate the role of archaeometallurgical studies, coupled with ethnoarchaeological studies on continuing artisanal technologies, in such enquiries.The paper also seeks to explore the interplay between functional and cultural imperatives through which one may explain the preferential emergence of certain technologies with respect to debates on knowledge production. It restricts itself to selected case studies providing insights into the archaeometallurgy of high-tin bronzes especially from Iron Age Tamil Nadu, zinc smelting evidence at Zawar, Rajasthan, gold working with respect the Nilgiris, and the high-tin bronze mirror craft of Aranmula, Kerala.
Indian Journal of History of Science, 51.1 (2016) 22-32
http://insa.nic.in/writereaddata/UpLoadedFiles/IJHS/Vol51_2016_1_Art05.pdf
Abstract There are inherent challenges in attempting to explore the trajectory of knowledge production vis-a-vis the use of metals in antiquity. Metallurgical innovations, falling as they would have largely done in the domain of empirical knowledge and expertise, would not necessarily have left a systematic written record in the sense of knowledge production. This enquiry is perhaps even more convoluted in the Indian context where in the first place, there are not many detailed records that have readily come to light concerning mining and metallurgy and in the second place, not much systematic archaeometallurgical research has been undertaken. Nevertheless, this paper attempts to demonstrate the role of archaeometallurgical studies, coupled with ethnoarchaeological studies on continuing artisanal technologies, in such enquiries.The paper also seeks to explore the interplay between functional and cultural imperatives through which one may explain the preferential emergence of certain technologies with respect to debates on knowledge production. It restricts itself to selected case studies providing insights into the archaeometallurgy of high-tin bronzes especially from Iron Age Tamil Nadu, zinc smelting evidence at Zawar, Rajasthan, gold working with respect the Nilgiris, and the high-tin bronze mirror craft of Aranmula, Kerala.
Shoumita Chatterjee, Sabikun Naher and Pranab K. Chattopadhyay , 2015, Mirrors of Ancient India: From Harappa to Mahasthangarh, Published in Puratattva, Volume No 45 (2015) .
aṣṭamangalaka hāra
aṣṭamangalaka hāra depicted on a pillar of a gateway(toran.a) at the stupa of Sanchi, Central India, 1st century BCE. [After VS Agrawala, 1969, Thedeeds of Harsha (being a cultural study of Bāṇa’s Harṣacarita, ed. By PK Agrawala, Varanasi:fig. 62] The hāra or necklace shows a pair of fish signs together with a number of motifsindicating weapons (cakra, paraśu,an:kuśa), including a device that parallels the standard device normally shown in many inscribed objects of SSVC in front of the one-horned bull.
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(cf. Marshall, J. and Foucher,The Monuments of Sanchi, 3 vols., Callcutta, 1936, repr. 1982, pl. 27).The first necklace has eleven and the second one has thirteen pendants (cf. V.S. Agrawala,1977, Bhāratīya Kalā , Varanasi, p. 169); he notes the eleven pendants as:sun,śukra, padmasara,an:kuśa, vaijayanti, pan:kaja,mīna-mithuna,śrīvatsa, paraśu,
darpaṇa and kamala. "The axe (paraśu) and an:kuśa pendants are common at sites of north India and some oftheir finest specimens from Kausambi are in the collection of Dr. MC Dikshit of Nagpur."(Dhavalikar, M.K., 1965, Sanchi: A cultural Study , Poona, p. 44; loc.cit. Dr.Mohini Verma,1989, Dress and Ornaments in Ancient India: The Maurya and S'un:ga Periods,Varanasi, Indological Book House, p. 125).
Some undisclosed metals (as known to the seven artisan`A0families of Aranmula) are alloyed with copper and tin to cast the mirror in typical clay moulds. The method is the age-old lost-wax process in traditional style after melting the metals in a furnace fitted with a manual blower… Studies by Sharda Srinivasan, a researcher in Archaeometallurgy in the National Institute of Advanced Studies at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and her colleague, discovered the secret of the alloy that Aranmula mirrors were made of — a binary copper-tin alloy with 32-34 per cent tin…. She also noted that the skill of alloying was developed to such perfection by the Aranmula artisans that it matched the pure delta phase of bronze, offering the best possible uniformly-polished surface, and is long lasting." |
"Bronze mirrors preceded the glass mirrors of today. This type of mirror has been found by archaeologists among elite assemblages from various cultures, from Etruscan Italy to China...In the Indus valley civilization, manufacture of bronze mirrors goes back to the time between 2800 and 2500 BCE.(Richard Corson: Fashions in Makeup: From Ancient to Modern Times, 1972)." Sourced from World Heritage Encyclopedia. http://self.gutenberg.org/Article.aspx?Title=bronze_mirrors
"Polished bronze or copper mirrors were made by the Egyptians from 2900 BCE onwards." (Z. Y. Saad: The Excavations at Helwan. Art and Civilization in the First and Second Egyptian Dynasties, University of Oklahoma Press, Oklahoma 1969, p.54)
"A Story from Corea called ‘The Magic Mirror’ tells us that a young peasant went from his village to the capital in order to sell his products and to buy some commodities. Passing a shop-window he was struck by having seen somebody in the window who could not have been anybody else but his twin-brother. He was amazed at this because his brother was living in another town. He stood still and gazed, and now he was sure that it was his twin-brother, because when he smiled at him he smiled back. ‘I must have this magic’, he thought. So he entered the shop and asked whether he could buy this strange thing in which was to be seen his counterpart. The shopkeeper wrapped it up and remarked laughingly: ‘Be careful not to crack it, so that your brother will not get lost’. The peasant took it home, but before he could unpack it to show his family he was called away on urgent business." B. Schweig, 1941, Mirrors, in: Antiquity / Volume 15 / Issue 59 / September 1941, pp 257-268
Some claim that Aranmula Kannadi is made of silver, bronze, copper and tin alloy. Is this comparable to 'speculum metal'?
"In China,bronze mirrors were manufactured from around 2000 BC, some of the earliest bronze and copper examples being produced by the Qijia culture. Mirrors made of other metal mixtures (alloys) such as copper and tin speculum metal may have also been produced in China and India."
"Speculum metal is a mixture of around two-thirds copper and one-third tin making a white brittle alloy that can be polished to make a highly reflective surface. It is used primarily to make different kinds of mirrors including early reflecting telescope optical mirrors. Speculum metal can also be used as the metallic coating on glass mirrors (as opposed to silver or aluminium) giving a reflectivity of 68% at 6000 angstroms when evaporated onto the surface...Speculum metal mixtures usually contain two parts copper to one part tin along with a small amount of arsenic, although there are other mixtures containing silver, brass, lead, or zinc. The knowledge of making very hard white high luster metal out of bronze-type high-tin alloys may date back more than 2000 years in China ((Joseph Needham, 1974, Gwer-djen Lu, Science and civilization in China, Volume 5, Cambridge Univ. Press, page 236). although it could also be an invention of western civilizations (The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 64, p. 71)."
The speculum metal mirror from William Herschel's 1.2-meter (49.5-inch) diameter "40-foot telescope", at the Science Museum in London
“Mirrors had both aesthetic value and magico-religious significance in parts of Asia, as in China and India. Bronze mirrors with figurines on handles are known from ancient Egypt. Flat, circular tanged mirrors were found from Harappan contexts northwest of the Indian subcontinent at Quetta and Harappa in Pakistan (ca. 2000 BCE) and Dholavira in Gujarat, India. These would probably have been made of bronze of low tin content (i.e. < 10% tin)...A unique mirror-making tradition survives at the village of Aranmula, Kerala, southern India. Here, a cast high-tin bronze mirror of 33% tin with highly specular or reflective properties is made which is comparable to, if not better than, modern mercury glass-coated mirrors. The presence of the brittle silvery-white delta phase of bronze is optimized while avoiding the use of lead, which could have dulled the mirror effect... Two unleaded bronze samples of 22% and 26% tin were reported from the Indus Valley site of Mohenjodaro (ca. 2500 BCE), although they might be accidentally alloyed. Although flat bronze mirrors are found from Indus sites such as Quetta, these do not sem to have been analysed and are much more likely to have been of copper or low-tin bronze. However, from the Bhir mound in Taxila, Pakistan, a binary high-tin bronze mirror of 25% tin was uncovered. Thus it is probable that the Aranmula mirror-making process evolved out of longstanding metallurgical traditions prevalent in the Indian subcontinent for the use of bronzes of high-tin content."
http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Downloads/article_id_093_01_0035_0040_0.pdf
Darpana Sundari, 'mirror beauties' on sculptures![]()
Parvati as Lalita carrying a bronze mirror, with her sons Ganesa and Skanda, Orissa. 11th cent. Now in British Museum. 1872.0701.54![]()
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Parvati as Lalita carrying a bronze mirror, with her sons Ganesa and Skanda, Orissa. 11th cent. Now in British Museum. 1872.0701.54
