Early bead-making in prehistoric Baluchistan: a chalcolithic workshop area at Mehrgarh (Pakistan), mid 4th millennium BCE

An important workshop area for the manufacturing of semiprecious beads (lapis lazuli, carnelian, turquoise and others) dating to the mid-4th millennium BCE was collected on the surface of the site of Mehrgarh by French and Italian archaeologists in the 80s. It is one of the few and earliest bead making manufacturing sites of the Indo-Pakistani Subcontinent. Although two articles have dealt with specific aspects of the palaeotechnological evidence, no systematic was done, so far, on this important collection, which includes, besides beads and manufacturing waste, a set of well-preserved drill heads. This presentation will reconsider the whole assemblage in a unitary perspective, re- documenting the materials with updated methods and formats, and will apply archaeometric techniques such as Scanning Electron Microscopy of the silicone cast of the drilling hole, micro-Raman spectroscopy, stereomicroscopy and confocal microscopy.