Which material was commonly used to make Harappan seals?

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Accepted Answer

Correct answer: A — ConceptIn archaeology the material chosen for a class of artefact follows from the technical demands that class must meet, not from the prestige or scarcity of the material. An object that must carry fine incised line-work, be produced in quantity, and then survive repeated pressing into soft clay needs a stone that is soft enough to cut with the metal tools available in the period yet becomes hard and durable after heat treatment. ApplicationHarappan seals are small square or rectangular tablets, usually about 2 to 4 cm across, bearing an animal motif and a short line of Indus script cut in intaglio. Steatite has a Mohs hardness of only about 1 to 2, so a copper burin can incise that fine detail directly without the stone chipping or shattering. After carving, the tablet was coated with an alkali paste and heated to roughly 1,000 degrees Celsius; the surface converts to a hard enstatite layer with a white lustre that resists the wear of repeated impressing. Soft while being carved and hard once fired: that combination is why steatite accounts for the great majority of the several thousand recorded seals from Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Lothal and Kalibangan. Cross-check and contrastMaterial Why it does not fit the seal corpus Gold Far too scarce, and still too soft after working, to hold crisp intaglio line-work; the surviving Harappan gold is ornament, not inscribed tablets. Copper Cast or chased rather than freely incised, and committed to tools, weapons and vessels; the handful of Harappan copper tablets is a minor class beside the stone corpus. Clay The receiving medium rather than the matrix: fired clay preserves the impressions, or sealings, that seals left on bales and door fastenings, and terracotta tablets form only a small variant group. The material commonly used for Harappan seals is therefore steatite.

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A. Steatite

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B. Gold

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C. Copper

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D. Clay

Material	Why it does not fit the seal corpus
Gold	Far too scarce, and still too soft after working, to hold crisp intaglio line-work; the surviving Harappan gold is ornament, not inscribed tablets.
Copper	Cast or chased rather than freely incised, and committed to tools, weapons and vessels; the handful of Harappan copper tablets is a minor class beside the stone corpus.
Clay	The receiving medium rather than the matrix: fired clay preserves the impressions, or sealings, that seals left on bales and door fastenings, and terracotta tablets form only a small variant group.