Kanungo, A. K.; Brill, R. H. "Kopia, India’s First Glassmaking Site: Dating and Chemical Analysis." Journal of Glass Studies vol. 51 (2009) pp. 11-25. I(opia, India's First Glassmaking Site: Dating and Chemical Analysis Alok K. Kanungo and Robert H. Brill HE EARLIEST glass finds in India come the history of glass in India has not been thor­ T from Bhagwanpura in the northern state oughly re-examined since M. G. Dikshit's land­ of Haryana. They are dated to the period mark work, History of Indian Glass, was pub­ of Painted Gray Ware (PGW) and the late Harap­ lished in 1969,2 despite the fact that much glass pan culture, about 1200 B.C. 1 Later on, glass has been discovered since that time. is reported from almost all of the PGW sites More than 210 sites in India have provided (about 1200-600 B.C.), but until now none of evidence of glass in different cultural horizons, the glass-yielding layers has been dated by radio­ and 37 of them are claimed to be glassmaking metric techniques. Hence, our understanding of or glassworking sites. 3 However, based on cur­ the evolution of glassmaking in India and its rent interpretations of the available data, the chronology has been uncertain and the dating dates of most of the glass-yielding sites are un­ of specific finds has been, at best, only approx­ convincing, as are the relationships of the glass imate. Occasional references suggest that glass finds to the dated materials. Earlier archeolog­ imports-and possibly glassmaking technology ical investigations in India have focused on other -were brought into southern India by well­ matters and neglected the dating. It is highly developed Indo-Roman trade in the first and sec­ likely that from the Northern Black Polished ond centuries A.D., and that a glass industry was Ware (NBPW) period (about 600 B.C.) onward, established at Arikamedu on the Tamil Nadu there were many regional centers of glass pro­ coast. From there, early glass products are pre­ duction in India. sumed to have reached other parts of India. Recently, two glass beads dating to 1730 B.C. This assumption is still held by many because (one from a stratigraphic context and the other Acknowledgments. We are indebted to a number of scholars Glass Research from The Corning Museum of Glass, and he for the excavation at Kopia and for obtaining the radiocarbon thanks the staff of the museum for many helpful suggestions and dates. The late Dr. S. P. Gupta, director of the Centre for the contributions. Shana Wilson assisted with the handling of our Study of History, Archaeology and Palaeoenvironment, New analytical data and the plotting of the graphs. Delhi, and Prof. V. N. Misra, former director of Deccan College, 1. Jagat Pati Joshi, Excavation at Bhagwanpura, 1975-76 were sources of constant encouragement and help. Dr. Rakesh and Other Explorations & Excavations, 1975-81 in Haryana, Tewari, director of the Uttar Pradesh State Archaeology Depart­ Jammu & Kashmir, and Punjab, Memoirs of the Archaeological ment, Lucknow, extended all the logistical help for the excava­ Survey of India, no. 89, New Delhi: the survey, 1993, p. 117. tion. We are grateful to Prof. Peter Bellwood, secretary-general 2. Moreshwar Gangadhar Dikshit, History of Indian Glass, of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association (IPPA), for making Bombay: University of Bombay, 1969. the IPPA-Arizona dating scheme available. We also thank those 3. Alok Kumar Kanungo, Glass Beads in Ancient India: An who provided the dating for the Kopia site: G. V. Ravi Prasad; Ethnoarchaeological Approach, British Archaeological Reports K. Dutta of the Institute of Physics AMS Facility, Bhubaneswar; International Series, no. 1242, Oxford: John and Erica Hedges M. G. Yadava of the Radiocarbon Lab, Physical Research Lab­ Ltd., 2004, pp. 88-91; idem, "Glass Beads in Ancient India and oratory, Ahmedabad; and G. W. L. Hodgins of the NSF Arizona Furnace-Wound Beads at Purdalpur: An Ethnoarchaeological AMS Facility, University of Arizona. A. K. Kanungo is grateful Approach," Asian Perspectives (University of Hawaii Press), v. for financial support provided by the 2005 Rakow Grant for 43, no. 1, Spring 2004, pp. 123-150, esp. p. 123. 11 Rakow Research Library, The Corning Museum of Glass - http://www.cmog.org Kanungo, A. K.; Brill, R. H. "Kopia, India’s First Glassmaking Site: Dating and Chemical Analysis." Journal of Glass Studies vol. 51 (2009) pp. 11-25. a surface find) were found at Harappa,4 and found outside the fortification, toward the north­ seven were uncovered in a late Harappan buri­ ern end of the mound. This part of the deposit al, reportedly of the second millennium B.C., at is within 250 meters of the fortification, but it Sanauli, Uttar Pradesh.5 One of the authors (A. is about seven meters lower than the fortified K. Kanungo) has documented eight glass beads area. Thus, it is possible that material from the from Chalcolithic Balathal, dating to the mid­ fortified area was also found in these outer de­ third millennium B.C. 6 However, none of the posits. beads from either site has been scientifically an­ alyzed, and those from Sanauli have not been The Excavations scientifically dated. (We note that, in the past, al­ though small finds have been identified as glass, In three seasons of excavations at the site they have sometimes turned out to be faience or (2004-2006),926 trenches, each of which mea­ other materials, or made from minerals.) Al­ sured five square meters, were excavated, either though the beads at Balathal were found in a fully or in quadrants, covering a total area of Chalcolithic level, they could have intruded from 418.75 square meters. Eight of these trenches the overlying Early Historic deposit. This same lay in the center of the mound, inside the forti­ possibility applies to Ahar, where a few glass fication, and three were located on the western beads were found in the Chalco lithic level but boundary of the fortification. Combined, they the excavator believed that these could have mi­ are designated as Locality I. All of the remaining grated from pits in Early Historic deposits.7 Against this background, excavations at Ko­ pia are being conducted with four objectives: (1) to obtain precise dating for the manufacture of 4. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, personal communication with the glass by radiometric methods, (2) to apply A. K. Kanungo. 5. Dharamvir V. Sharma, Kishan Chand Nauriyal, and Vel­ that knowledge toward defining a more accurate lore Nandagopal Prabhakar, "Excavations at Sanauli, 2005-06: chronological framework for the general evolu­ A Harappan Necropolis in the Upper Ganga-Yamuna Doab," Puratattva (New Delhi), v. 36,2005-2006, pp. 166-179, esp. tion of glass in India, (3) to learn more about the p.174. origins of the Kopia glass, and (4) to investigate 6. Virendra Nath Misra, "Balathal: A Chalcolithic Settlement the technology of glass manufacture at Kopia. in Mewar, Rajasthan, India: Results of First Three Seasons' Ex­ cavation," South Asian Studies (Cambridge University), v. 13, In addition, we hope eventually to shed light on 1997,pp.251-273. glassmaking relationships that probably existed 7. Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia, S. B. Deo, and Z. D. Ansari, between the subcontinent and the Indus Valley Excavations at Ahar (1961-62), Pune: Deccan College, 1969, p. 163. civilizations. 8. A. Fuhrer, The Monumental Antiquities and Inscriptions in the North -Western Provinces and Oudh, v. 2, New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, 1891; P. Roy and Y. P. Varsh­ The Kopia Site ney, "Ancient Kopia Glass," The Glass Industry, v. 34, 1953, pp. 366-392; Dikshit [note 2], p. 39; S. N. Sen and Mamata Kopia (26°52' N, 83°4'45 N E, Fig. 1), located Chaudhuri, Ancient Glass and India, New Delhi: Indian Na­ tional Science Academy, 1985, pp. 64-65; B. B. Lal, "Glass Tech­ in the Sant Kabir Nagar district of Uttar Pra­ nology in Early India," in Archaeometry of Glass: Proceedings desh, extends over an area of about one square of the Archaeometry Session of the XIVth International Con­ kilometer, and it rises about 10 meters above gress on Glass, ed. H. C. Bharadwaj, Calcutta: Indian Ceramic Society, 1987, pp. 44-56, esp. p. 45; Abdugani A. Abdurazakov, the surrounding ground level. On the basis of "Indian and Central Asian Connections: A Study Based on surface finds, it was long believed to have been Chemical Analyses of Glasses," in ibid., pp. 37-43. a major glass manufacturing center of the fifth 9. The results of these excavations are published in A. K. Ka­ nungo and V. N. Misra, "Excavation at Kopia: A Preliminary century B.C.8 The site was well fortified and sur­ Report," Puratattva, v. 34, 2003-2004, pp. 116-126; A. K. rounded by a moat. There is a substantial area Kanungo and V. S. Shinde, "Excavation at Kopia 2005: A Pre­ liminary Report," Puratattva, v. 35,2004-2005, pp. 126-134; of occupation outside the fortification as well. and A. K. Kanungo, "Excavation at Kopia 2006: A Preliminary Most of the evidence of glass production was Report," Puratattva, v. 36,2005-2006, pp. 103-111. 12 Rakow Research Library, The Corning Museum of Glass - http://www.cmog.org Kanungo, A. K.; Brill, R. H. "Kopia, India’s First Glassmaking Site: Dating and Chemical Analysis." Journal of Glass Studies vol. 51 (2009) pp. 11-25. o..____-======'1 Ian FIG. 1. Map showing Kopia (center, unmarked) and immediate surroundings. trenches were situated in Locality II, which lies The Glass Finds and Glass Furnace toward the north and outside the fortification. On the basis of information from previous The finds from the excavation leave no doubt surface exploration and initial trial trenches, the that Kopia was a manufacturing center for glass, central part of the mound was selected for ob­ and its entire economy appears to have been taining the cultural sequence and information based on glassmaking and glassworking.