EIV 1 - 25 * 10 mm
Price: 350 usd
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Rare stones with many colors, shapes, and forms
From the beginning, the Indus people went to great
efforts to obtain exotic stones for making beads of
different colors, shapes, and sizes. With increasing bead
making skills and diversion in social stratification, it was not
longer enough just to own a perfect
made bead.
For
the bead and its owner to stand out the hunt for the
unique and rare stone became more and more
important.
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EIV 2 -
Price: 450 usd
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That explains the fascinating variety of the Indus beads
shapes, materials and colors, a quality far from the dull uniformity of
the DZI-beads. The individual bead had the function to
make its owner stand out to stand above. The absence of
consistency in material and design in the 'stand out and above' beads indirectly
shows the relative innocence in this first period of
class diversification. Social classes did somehow not
solidify into uniformity as it did in the contemporary
Egyptian culture.
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EIV
3
- 55 * 15 m
Price: 500 usd
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That explains the fascinating variety of the Indus beads
shapes, materials and colors, a quality far from the dull uniformity of
the DZI-beads. The individual bead had the function to
make its owner stand out to stand above. The absence of
consistency in material and design in the 'stand out and above' beads indirectly
shows the relative innocence in this first period of
class diversification. Social classes did somehow not
solidify into uniformity as it did in the contemporary
Egyptian culture.
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EIV 4 -
63 * 15
mm
Price: 800 usd
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Somehow the non-conformity of the Indus beads resonates with the notion of
individuality as we understand it today.
In our contemporary western world, there is a new
tendency not to show social power by golden uniformity,
but by a self-styled avatar like performance of
individuality. Therefore my prediction is that Rolex watches
soon will be a social signifier showing the more advanced avatars who are
not a member of their club. Of course, I have nothing
against Rolex as such. I only use it as a metaphor for
traditional branded
status symbols.
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EIV 5 - 23 * 8,5 mm
Price: 350 usd
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BEADS AS MONEY
There is a saying in the
Konyak tribe: One bead necklace is equivalent to
one Nepali slave.
Often cultural customs and behavior patterns in tribes can give
us valuable information about our ancient past.
However in the Indus culture beads were most likely only meant as
signifiers of social status in an emerging work and class
divided society. Beads were most probably not used as money
at this early stage in history. It
was only after the decline of the Indus civilization that
beads began to morph their way into the emerging monetary
circulation systems.
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EIV 6 -
24 * 9 mm
Price: 350 usd
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Attractive, easy to carry & hard to find or make
The first prototypes of money needed to fulfill three
functions: They had to be attractive, easy to carry and hard to
find or make. Hence items
such as
shells and beads began to be used in exchange for commodities on a larger and more organized scale. In this sense,
beads evolved from being primarily status objects into also
fulfilling the need of 'cash' in the emerging affluent urban
based trading economies on the Indo-Gangetic Plain in the
post-Indus period.
Beads became Niksha, money in circulation systems
similar to the much later use of
trade beads
in Africa.
Most probably bead-currency were used in the
economic systems also after the rise of the first
punch
marked coins around 6. century B.C. An irony of history it
is that history repeats itself in the way Sulemani and DZI beads
nowaday are used to facilitate the Chinese in their parallel
black & gray economies.
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EIV 7 -
23
* 10 mm
Price: 350 usd
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Money beads cannot display individual variety
Now, why did I place these thoughts about beads as money in
the Indus bead section? Indus beads were not used as money. In the context of the Indus beads I
find especially the following
observation of importance:
As soon as beads started to serve as money, they lost
their individuality.
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EIV 8
- 30,5 * 11 mm
Price: 350 usd
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Due to the need for a currency that could be recognized in larger
geographical areas and here reflect and measure 'abstract'
value, they had to become look-alikes. The bead production had
to down-prioritize beauty, rarity, and variety and instead
become more uniform like shells. Here we most probably have the
main reason why the astonishing variety of beads in the Indus
period was substituted by the relative uniformity of the later
mass produced beads.
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EIV 9 -
24
* 8 mm
Price: 350 usd
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Beads used as money also explain why there are so many beads as
compared to the relative little number of humans on the planet
at that time.
From the period around 700 B.C. and the next 1000 years, we find
a lot of beads. Even in spite the fact that 90% of the 'ancient'
beads we see today are fakes, the remaining 10% are still quite
massive in number! Now and then diggers even today sometimes
finds 50 kg of ancient beads in one lot! The need of cash
created an even mass production of beads pretty much in the same
way as Ford started to mass produce look-alike cars in the
1930ties.
However... What you see here is not money beads.
These Indus beads are beads of art.
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VEIV 10
- 30,5 * 7 mm
Price: 450 usd
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As you can observe in the
Remarkable ancient beads
section there of course still were room for beads as social signifiers, as
jewelry in later periods. These rare and individual beads
however coexisted with an abundant mainstream of uniform beads,
especially the sulemani and
DZI type.
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EIV 11 -
28
* 10,5 mm
Price: 350 usd
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THE RAREST OF THE RARE - LONG SLENDER BICONE INDUS BEADS
Below I proudly present my collection of super
ancient long, thin bicone Indus Valley beads. Note that some of them, like
the ones below,
are created with an elliptical shape from the ends to the middle
of the bead.
James W. Lankton writes in his book, "A
Bead Timeline":
These striking beads were produced
for a relatively short period following 2450 BCE.
High-status beads: long and slender in hard
material
Long and slender bicone agate beads were more than
anything else tough to make. I would often take
more than 2 weeks of labor to make just one of these beads! Understood along the
lines of social hierarchy this type of
bead emerged in the equations between the growing need
for social display of power and the evolution of
bead making technology within groups of specialized
workers from sourcing to manufacturing. Also, there must have
been a quite well defined and most probably privileged group of
merchants dealing with expertise to secure such an export quality
uniformity that these beads display.
A super rare drill material: Ernestite
The drilling of such long holes was done with a cylindrical drill made out of an extremely rare type of
metamorphic rock named Ernestite (after the archeologist
Ernest Mackey) When the supply of Ernstite dried out, the making
of these beads disappeared as well.
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EIV 97 -
26,5
* 9,5 mm
Price: 350 usd
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How come that we find
long bicone soft
limestone beads? It is a bad idea seen from the
viewpoint of durability. Most probably these beads were mass
produced as a lower social strata imitation of the rich man's
display of wealth. Cheap imitations in terra cotta have been
found in Nausharo. Such imitations in sandstone or other not-hard materials can be compared to a Chinese imitation
Rolex watch. Today there are more of these copy watches than
genuine Rolexes. However in 1000 years from now they, due to
their low quality and durability, will be much rarer than
the originals. This funny and lofty thought came to me while
watching this vulnerable, but perfect sandstone bead above.
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EIV
98
-
25 * 10 mm
Price: 350 usd
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The Indus bead makers loved to make beads with as many
different colors as possible presented in one bead. This is
clearly seen in the agate bead above. In the section
with Late Indus Valley beads,
this tendency is also evident.
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The
Indus
Valley people became masters in the art of bead
making. I even dare to say that they, before the diamond drill
was invented somewhere around 500 B.C., were the leading exporters
of beads to the neighboring civilizations of
the
lucky latitude.
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EIV
99
-
23 * 10 * 9 mm
Price: 325 usd
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EIV 100
-
25 * 10 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV
- 44 * 12 mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV 21
- 44 * 12,5 mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV 101
-
19 * 10 mm
Price: 250 usd
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ESSAY - THE MYSTERIOUS INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION
The
Indus Valley civilization dwarfed the parallel
river civilizations, the
Egyptian in the Nile Valley and
the Mesopotamian
between the Tigris and Euphrates. At its peak, the Indus
Valley civilization is estimated to have encompassed one million km2,
an area larger than Western Europe.
A vastly expanded river culture
The Indus people did not possess the technology of digging wells
and pumping water out from these wells with
stone pulley wheels with strapped wooden pails. This
technology was developed during the Vedic Age. They had
specialized in irrigating their fields with flood water through
the making of channels. River plains and areas close to rivers
became their home. This might be the main reason for the vast
expansion of their culture. They had to follow the rivers, not
cultivating areas too far away and hence out of reach for flood irrigation.
The Indus people turned deserts into gardens due to the
extraordinary collective achievement of river taming. Where the
Egyptians constructed pyramids, the Indus people created water
reservoirs and water channels on a such a scale that it stands
unrivaled till today if one compares it through historically
calibrated eyes.
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EIV 102 -
19,5
* 6,5 mm
Price: 450 usd
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This expansion gave fuel to long distance trade and finally made
the Indus civilization reach an almost industrial output level.
The
'empire' was therefore naturally glued together through waterways. The Indus people became sailors and commanded large fleets
of ships
making it
possible to flourish in the
vast river plains, coastal areas, and adjacent regions. They had
extensive trade with Mesopotamia
and exported goods such as beads, cotton cloth, beads,
ceramics, copper, and bronzeware.
Here especially stone beads with designs on demand were shipped
westward. According to
Mark Kenoyer there even was a settlement of Indus craftsmen
in Mesopotamia.
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EIV 27 -
27 * 7,5
mm
Price: 500 usd
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Awesome urban-planning
Between 3 to 5 million people, around half of the world's
population at that time lived in this vast
civilization.
Such large populations required new ways of living. The
Indus people
were among the first to concentrate in mega-cities.
These cities were
created out of preplanned administrative thoughts,
thoughts that most probably grew out of the need for taming
rivers to have sufficient and steady
water supply for such large populations.
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EIV 28 -
58 * 14
mm
This is not a bead, but an
ancient mystery
Indus talisman made in jasper and copper.
Price: 500 usd
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They constructed perfect waterways, drainage and sewerage
systems in cities built out of uniformly sized bricks. Houses
were oriented to catch the wind to provide for a natural
air condition. Streets, multi-storied houses and other
constructions like public baths were perpendicular set
in relation to each other. They could even be divided
into each other by the measurement of one of their
standardized building bricks.
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EIV 103 -
21,5
* 7 mm
Price: 250 usd
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These mega-cities had a natural demand for
huge inflow of food and outflow of goods, that seems to
have happened through regulated commerce. The massive walls
built around the Indus cities were not meant
for military protection but for the purpose of trade regulation. There
are no archeological signs of warfare buried in these walls. In
more than 2000 years the Indus people lived
without wars. Somehow they found other ways of
dissolving social conflicts.
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EIV 104 -
19,5
* 8 mm
Price: 350 usd
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Greater India was the bead maker to the world
Now, what has all this to do with beads?
The Indus people has left a treasure for us to admire: their unique beads!
I will here give the word to Peter Francis:
More than any other land India
has been "bead maker to the world."
The Beads of India -
Peter Francis
I dare to say that most stone beads older than 1000 BCE
are in fact made in this Greater India or by Indian craftsmen or by people
taught by these artisans. Ancient stone bead making is in this
respect a part of the Indian historical identity, and it is odd that Indians themselves have not discovered
this important fact.
THE INDUS NARRATIVE
Now, what were these people thinking? What kind of
Big Thoughts did they have?
My question is:
What kind of social glue did they
use? What was the nature of their narratives?
A few things I can say for sure. They appreciated beauty and individuality. Their beads are beautiful and individual.
They all seem to stand out. The Indus people did not go for
uniformity.
This stands in stark contrast to the favorite ancient beads of
the Chinese today. As the Chinese themselves none of these beads
dare to be different. Yes - I am talking of the DZI-beads.
But back to the Indus topic:
Only an adamant social binding cohesion would be able
to create such an affluent mega-civilization able to house and
feed such a huge population in such an
early historic period.
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EIV 105 -
Price: 350 usd
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Great care has been taken in cutting many of these
stones so as to get special effects from the natural
structure of the stone, white or colored bands being
arranged to form 'eyes' , 'zones' or chevrons, all of
which may have had special meanings. (Beads
from Taxilla,
Horace Beck - p.8)
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The elephants of King Porus
Anyone who has lived in India for a longer period, as I
have done, will come to know that the tradition of oral
storytelling is still very much alive as compared to
the almost extinct traditions in the west. I once in Punjab heard a man offend another man
by telling him, that he was no better than the elephants
of King
Parvateshwar (Porus).
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EIV 106
-
17 * 8,5 mm
Price: 350 usd
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I asked him what he meant by that expression. He told me
that in Punjab it is common to characterize
a man, who like the elephants of King Porus does a lot
of impressive trumpeting, but falls down flat when it
comes to a real test as the case were when King Porus
elephants had to confront Alexanders army. This saying
is, as far as I know, not from books. It has been handed
down orally from the days of Alexander and is still
alive as a part of the identity in the area.
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EIV 107 - 24 * 8 mm
Price: 400 usd
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The Indian time machine
The cultural
identity of the Indians is adamant.
Indians
have in contrast to other cultures a strange ability to
be modern and conservative at the same time.
Indian
women
still wear saris and bangles. They celebrate ancient
mythological events in the same passionate way as they
adore cricket. They love Mc Donald, but first after
changing the burger into something that is very far away
from the original American concept. The middle-class
Indians have TV's in all their rooms, but they watch
their own homegrown serials.
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V
EIV
13 -
44 * 12 mm
Price: 500 usd
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Many of them have never heard of the Beatles. They have
their Bollywood heroes and heroines. I once met a
Nobel-winning Indian scientist, who claimed to be an
incarnation of a Danish man. This man is reflecting a
strange fact about India: that one historical period
does not erase the ones that were there before, even
more so when it comes to the soul of the people. Not
even the Muslem invasion managed to do that. In
contemporary India find a myriad of religious traditions
from almost every historical period.
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EIV
35 -
27
* 6,5
mm
Price: 450 usd
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This bead has like many of the
beads from this collection been colored by chemicals in
the earth.
However this in some cases create
even more beautiful beads. |
Some are
performing Vedic fire rituals, and some renounce the world
like the ancient
Rishis,
some gather in great crowds to worship Krishna. I could
go on forever with examples. The social fragmentation
created by the cast system further adds to the
diversification and paradoxically even amplifies the
inherited traditions in the sense that the caste
identity is preserved through the uniqueness of the
rituals. India is a time machine.
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Indian
tribal woman - note her ancient tatoo
Indus Valley seal & ancient etched bead
Imagination is more powerful than knowledge - (Einstein)
Hence
I believe that the answer to my question
concerning the nature of the social binding cohesion of
the Indus culture does not necessarily need to wait for us decipher
the Indus Valley script. The answer or at least a hint
is there - in India here and now. It is still alive in the midst of the
crowded streets of Main Bazar in New Delhi, where I took
the picture above of a tribal woman. The symbol she has
tattooed on her throat can be found on Indus Valley
seals and ancient beads.
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LARGE INDUS BEADS
EIV 36
- 93 * 12,5 mm
Price: 550 usd
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EIV 37
- 65 * 25 * 21,5 mm
Price: 750 usd - SOLD
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EIV 38 -
62
* 14 mm
Price: 750 usd
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Because of the Indians vital ancient memory I 'intuite'
that India still today has some
vital strings of 'civilizatoric' DNA, that we might need to overcome some of the challenges we globally
face today. These strings of cultural DNA contain vital
information about social cohesion forces that we need to
rediscover and implement in a society that is falling
apart due to egocentric and greedy behavior. This
ancient social glue will however not come to work without a little help from dream and
imagination.
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EIV 39 -
54,5 *
14,5
mm
Price: 650 usd
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Krishna on the razor's edge
The Indians have a mythological narrative that has
inspired me to think along these lines. When the world is
falling apart due to evil, the God Vishnu will incarnate, not to
entirely to expel evil but to restore the balance. Vishnu is
not 'good' in our western concept, as even contemporary Indians
tend to see him through the window of British influence.
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EIV 40 -
47 * 14
mm
Price: 700 usd
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The concept of Vishnu was far closer to the Taoist thought of Ying
and Yang, where Tao is seen as the balance
between opposite forces: This concept is much more refined as
compared to the western construction of a polarity between pure
good and pure evil.
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EIV 41 -
55 *
18
mm
Price: 800 usd
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In this sense, many of the Indian gods have
duality within them. They are like Kali with her
beautiful eyes and bloody teeth not only being embodiments of
the ultimate good. God has two hands, and it is the
responsibility of the individual to find the balance
between them.
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EIV 42 -
44 * 17 mm
Price: 650 usd
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Even without having any religious notions of God it
gives a lot of sense to observe existence, from the laws of
physics to the rise and fall of civilizations, as ultra hair fine
dynamic balance points between
opposite forces.
On the level of the Higgs field, the Universe can
only exist on a knife edge. In this impossible and ever flowing
balance point, even the poorest illiterate Indian would cry out:
Krishna always wins.
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As the case with the Higgs field, Vishnu even in the
form of virtue, always wins following the narrative
pathway of every good movie: in the very end and the closest race possible. Only here
Shivas
cosmic yet fragile dance on the razor's edge can be
re-balanced.
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EIV 106 -
18,5
* 8,5 mm
Price: 300 usd
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It is here worth noting that two of the most famous
incarnations of Vishnu, Krishna, and Rama, both were
royal. They were kings. They were, however, Kings of War,
which in my opinion make their narratives less ancient
as the peaceful Indus culture. However, I see them as
pointers towards the Indus period in the sense that these
two incarnations were virtuous royal upholders of social balance.
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Pyramids of power
The very shape of a pyramid can be seen as an architectural projection
of the social stratifications of the ancient Egyptian society. Egypt was a war
oriented and strictly hierarchical society. In contrast, the Indus civilization managed to
flourish for around
2000 years without wars, violence and parasitic elites.
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EIV 46 -
42 * 15 mm
Price: 550 usd
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Instead of
building pyramids to facilitate the imaginary afterlife
of a single individual, the Indus people created cities
with a ´flat´ architecture with almost no 'out-standing'
buildings for private housing.
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EIV 47 -
40 * 14 * 11 mm
SOLD
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In a city
with 'equal' buildings, one must assume that the people
living there were more or less equal too. The largest and most
important constructions were huge water reservoirs and public
baths. I cannot help seeing these public baths as symbolic
social equalizers where naked people merged in the water as one
being. Still today one can observe the Indian collectively
performed ritual adoration of water at the
ghats of Varanasi.
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VARIEGATED
JASPER INDUS BEADS
EIV 48 -
35
* 25 * 8 mm
Price: 400 usd
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The Indus Elite & the Priest-King
The Indus civilization was however not functioning
without an elite. The King-priest from
Harappa
displays a face of a mature and responsible leader.
As a scientist, I would not even be
allowed to
state, that this is a priest and/or a king. However,
as a dreamer using the power of imagination, I
allow myself to extrapolate evidence a little further.
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EIV 49 -
36 * 12 mm
Price: 550 usd |
Variegated Jasper and unusual forms of agate
n these rare ancient Indus beads
one will often find what is referred to as variegated
jasper.
As mentioned in the other
section of Indus beads, the
Indus people adored Jasper.
Variegated Jasper was the
favorite gemstone of the Indus and Mesopotamian people.
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The many terra cotta goddesses found in Indus sites show
fertile women with precious ornaments and dresses don't give
room for dreams of an ancient Indus-utopian socialism
without social divisions. Also, the Indus burial
grounds do reflect
a kind of social hierarchy
in the sense that women with thicker working bangles
were placed at one end of the burial ground and women with
thinner bangles not suitable for work were placed at the other
end.
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EIV 50 -
35 * 10 mm - SOLD
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In this type of Jasper, there are up to 20 percent non-quartz
elements.
These elements account or the wide
range of colors and patterns. In this sense, jasper demonstrates
a larger capacity for variation
than agate. This is clearly shown
in the bead to the left. |
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However, apart from
beads, we don't find extravagantly constructed graves full
of gold and other extreme symbols of status as compared
to the Egyptian aristocratic graves. This for me points
towards a kind of society that was not as
social polarized as the Mesopotamian and Egyptian.
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EIV 51 -
38 * 11 mm
Price: 550 usd - SOLD
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The patterns in agate are as a general rule following harmonious
geometric rules. Jasper beads, on the other hand, are more
unpredictable showing resemblance to abstract modern art. |
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The virtuous leader
In contemporary India, we alongside greed and
extreme social polarization can find
ancient pointers towards an entirely
different elitarian ideology as the one we all too often face today on a
global scale.
One day at sunrise,
after his morning ablution in the waters of the Saraswati, Srila Vyasadeva sat down to meditate. The great Sage saw certain
anomalies
in the fiber of the millennium... He foresaw that the life of everything
material
would be cut short for lack of virtue.
Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.4.15-18
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EIV 52 -
37 * 12 mm
Price: 450 usd
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For me, this ancient jasper bead
with crystalline formations can be viewed as a modern abstract art painting.
These beads are furthermore appealing to the notion of
'individuality.
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The introverted half
closed eyes of the Harappan King suggest that he is a leader looking for
answers inside himself.
He could very well be a Saint as well as a King. He seems to be modest
in his use of dress and gold.
The keynote of a society is set by its leaders.
When leaders are corrupt, their subjects will follow their example. When leaders
on the other hand are governed by virtue and moral, their example will
copy itself out in the furthest corner of the kingdom and affect even
the way a poor man treats a dog.
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EIV 53 -
36,5 * 10,5 mm
Price: 450 usd
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Each one stands out as different.
I never have difficulties identifying one of these grand old
Indus beads when I have to find them in my huge collection.
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Societies can be created out of
violence and/or strictly hierarchic religious organizations, dominating
not bodies with
the monopoly of violence, but through imaginary narratives instigating
psychological fear. Societies can also, as our western world seem to, at
least temporary, flourish in and by greed - in our case corporate
multinational greed.
However, there seems to be yet another glue that can create and uphold
societies.
That glue I call virtue.
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EIV 56 -
33 * 13 mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV 57
- 38 * 14 * 11,5 mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV 59
- 37,5 * 10,5 mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV
61
- 39 * 9,5 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV
62
- 36 * 9 mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV
63
- 31,5 * 12 * 10 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 64
- 61 * 12,5 mm
Price: 550 usd
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All of the 24 Thirtankas were sons of Kings!
Now we can start counting the 24 generations Jain Thirtanka princes backward, beginning from around 600
BC. 24 generations equal roughly a period of 700 years which
brings us very close to the Indus Valley civilization or at least to the
collective memory of it. The stronghold of
Jainism is in Gujarat where the Indus civilization survived for a longer
period than it did further west. The first of the Thirtankas was named
Rishab Dev. Rishab Dev is another name for Shiva, the Indus god of meditation.
Shiva - Pashupati - sitting in a
meditation
posture controlling the animals ...
around him - and in him
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Virtue was in ancient Indians connected with
seva, a Sanskrit
root word for
service. This
Seva did not begin in the subjects devotional service towards their
King, but the other way round. A leader had to set the example of
righteous living for his citizens.
He had to walk the
'Gandhian' talk.
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Price: 450 usd
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How to overcome the potential danger of greed's ability to dissolve the
social glue of a highly organized society? It is done through leading by
example.
When the great Buddhist king Ashoka renunciated his vast empire and
became a wandering beggar monk, he was just walking his talk along an ancient path that
several Kings had done before him. Prince Siddharta did it and became
the Buddha. The
contemporary Jain
Mahavira did it. Mahavira was the last out of 24
Thirtankas who
did it.
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EIV 107 -
16,5
* 7,5 mm
Price: 250 usd
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Why is Buddha signified by his long earlobes? It is because they are the
very signs that he is not an ordinary Tom, Harry or Dick beggar. Buddha
was Prince Siddharta, and his earlobes had become elongated due to
the Kingly custom of wearing huge golden ornaments in the ears.
Note the similarity between
this King's head
ornament and that of the Indus Priest-king.
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EIV 67 -
27 * 10 mm
Price: 300 usd
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When a
poor man renounces the world, nobody cares. What has he after all to
renounce? However, when a King does it and steps down from his throne, it has a
tremendous effect on the whole of society. Can you imagine what would
happen if you saw the executives of Monsanto together with Donald Trump as beggar monks in the streets of New York?
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EIV 68 -
38 * 10 mm
Price: 550 usd
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The man of power and wealth can afford to give his renunciation as a
choice.
Indian mythology is full of praising stories about Kings who renounced
their Kingdoms and became beggar monks. This ancient Indian ideal
trickled down the whole of society and even made it a cultural ritual
for an ordinary man to renounce the world when his children had grown up
and married.
I dare to say it is virtue in its purest form.
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EIV 69 -
36 * 14 mm
Price: 450 usd
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Meditation and virtue
Let us return to the meditating Shiva.
In ancient India, the ideal of meditation was an ideal of virtue. Meditation had
to be virtuous, and virtue on the other side had to be cultivated in
meditation. This connection is clearly seen in the above quotation from
Srimad-Bhagavatam.
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EIV 70 -
21,5 * 7,5 mm
Price: 250 usd
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Often, according to
mythology, saints gained tremendous powers through their meditation
practice and then fell for the temptation of using this power for
fulfilling personal needs instead of seva to the whole. The many stories
connected to this theme shows how ancient India was focusing on virtue to such an extent that it rivals the
very best parts and periods of Christianity.
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INDUS VALLEY AGATE BEADS
EIV 72 -
44,5 * 26,5 * 7,5 mm
Price: 750 usd
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I cannot help dreaming when I think about the ancient
Indus Valley civilization. Because dreams are nourished
by mysteries and the Indus script is (thank god) yet not
deciphered. I am therefore in the
absence of knowledge able to in an act of post-modern magic ritual, to choose to adore the Indus culture as an
utopia as compared with today's unfortunate social
polarization with a microscopic percentage of super rich
and a dwindling middle class on its way down a drainage
that soon will over flood - both metaphorically and
practically speaking. I don't mind rich people! However,
most are rich, not due to generosity, but due to greed.
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EIV 72A - 36 * 28 * 10 mm
Price: 850 usd
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EIV 72B - 29 * 27 *9 mm
Price: 750 usd
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EIV 72C - 34 *
26,5 * 9 mm
Price: 650 usd
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EIV 72D - 45 * 29,5 * 8 mm
Price: 650 usd
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EIV 72E - 33 * 17,5 * 14 mm
Price: 550 usd
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EIV 108 -
20 * 8 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 109 -
21 * 7 mm
Price: 350 usd
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Multinational corporate greed eats smaller states for
breakfast while war seems to be a better business than
ever. I love to look for future possibilities in the
past. Our ancient history provides a window where we can
mirror lofty visions for the future. In the entire span
of history, the Indus valley culture is the only
mega civilization that found other ways of resolving
conflicts than through war and aggression.
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In the more than
1000 sites yet discovered, we find no evidence of war and only a few
almost toy-like weapons. The first archeologist to uncover Indus sites
thought that they
had found a civilization inhabited only by children. In India, we can still get a little glimpse of these ways
of peace
in the behavior of Mahatma Gandhi and the nonviolent concept of
ahimsa of Jain's,
Hindus
and Buddhists.
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EIV 110 -
15
* 6,5 mm
Price: 250 usd
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INDUS BEADS OF VIRTUE & MEDITATION
This Golden Age of the Indus Valley Culture is mirrored in the
sublime beads you can enjoy below. These ancient beads tell the story of
a culture that in it’s own way was excelling from the macro world of
urban life to the miniature world of beads. As the Indus people were
able to create perfect cities they also did create perfect beads.
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EIV 111 -
15
* 6 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 77 -
27,5
* 7,5 mm
Yoni-lingam
Price: 500 |
The watchful third eye is the observer that by virtue of the
observation itself creates order out of chaos.
A human being is as consciousness a manifestation of the highest
order.
This order is the anti-thesis of the third law of
thermodynamics.
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EIV 112 -
17
* 5,5 mm
Price: 350 usd SOLD
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EIV 113 -
18
* 6,5 mm - SOLD
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EIV 80
- 37 * 10 * 9 mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV 81
- 35,5 * 11,5 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 84 -
42 * 15 mm
Oyster shell formed Indus Bead of immense beauty
SOLD
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EIV 85 -
42 * 15 mm
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EIV 86 -
21,5
* 17 * 6 mm
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EIV 87 -
42 * 15 mm
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EIV 89 -
21
* 19 * 7 mm
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EIV 90 -
19
* 8 * 4 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 91 -
11-13
* 5 mm
Price: 1200 usd
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EIV 114 -
23,5
* 9 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 115 -
24 * 9 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 116 -
23,5
* 10,5 mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV 118 -
22
* 8,5 mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV 119 -
22 * 10 mm
Price: 350 usd
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4EIV 120 -
23,5
* 7,5 mm
Price: 300 usd
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EIV 121
-
22 * 10,5 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 122
-
19,5 * 10 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 123 -
20 * 8 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 124 -
21,5 * 7 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 125 -
18 * 8 mm
Price: 300 usd
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EIV 126 -
18,5
* 7 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 127 -
14,5
* 6 mm
Price: 300 usd
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EIV 128 -
17 * 10,5 * 7 mm
Price: 300 usd
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EIV 129 -
17,5
* 10 * 6,5 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 130 -
14,5 * 8,5 * 5,5 mm
Price: 300 usd
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EIV 131 -
14 * 9 * 7 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 132 -
23 * 7,5 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 133 -
26,5
* 8 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 134 -
21 * 10 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 135 -
24,5
* 7 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 136 -
24 * 8 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 137 -
19
* 10 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 138 -
26,5
* 7 mm
Price: 200 usd
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EIV 139 -
30
* 8,5 mm
Price: 500 usd
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EIV 140 -
31 *
10 mm
Price: 500 usd
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EIV 141 -
32 * 10 mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV 142
-
30 * 10 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 143 -
28 * 9 mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV
144
-
27 * 10,5 mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV 145 -
27,5
* 9 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 146 - 26
* 8 mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV 147 -
24 * 10,5
* 7,5 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 148 -
22 * 10 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 149
-
22 * 9 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV
150
-
27 * 10 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 151 -
14,5
* 7,5 mm - Rare blue color
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 152
-
20 * 8,5 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 153 -
15
* 7,5 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 154 -
15
* 7 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 155 -
21 * 7,5 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV
156
-
19 * 8,5 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 157
-
20 * 8,5 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 158 -
44
* 11 mm
Price: 500 usd
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EIV 159
- 40;5 * 12 mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV 160 -
37,5
* 18,5 mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV 161 -
37 * 11,5 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 162 -
34
* 14 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 163 -
40,5
* 15 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 164 -
39 * 8
* 9,5 mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV 165 -
35
* 13,5 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 166 -
26,5
* 9,5 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 167 -
27,5
* 8 mm
Price: 250 usd
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SUPER ANCIENT BANDED LIMESTONE BEADS
In the early Indus Valley age, it was a difficult
task to drill and shape an agate bead. Alone out of this reason
one have to marvel at the long bicone and slender agate beads
made in this period. A much more easy and accessible bead making
material was banded limestone. Limestone is a sedimentary rock.
It is mostly composed of different crystal forms of calcium
carbonate known as calcite and aragonite. Its hardness on the Moh scale is between 3 and 4.
One can assume that the ancient Indus people chose the hardest
types of limestone for their bead making. However, the lack of
hardness as compared to agate or jasper has made the beads
extremely fragile. The softness of the stone combined with the
large holes has made it vulnerable to time. Only a few specimens
have survived up to our era.
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The bead displayed above is my favorite among the
limestone samples. It banding is beautiful showing
typical limestone colors. It is in perfect condition in
spite of the fact that it has a larger volume of hole
than of stone!
This bead is a true survivor against all the odds! I would
only part with it to an individual who has had the same
destiny.
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EIV 169 -
33,5 * 11 mm
Price: 600 usd
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Yellow brown
banded
limestone -
most probably from
the Pachcham
formation |
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The banded limestone used in these outstanding ancient
beads was most probably sourced from Gujarat:
Banded limestone is another rock that was transported
from its source in Gujarat to Harappan Sites deep within
the Indus Valley. The particular variety I am referring
to occurs in the Pachcham formation - a zone of Jurassic
sedimentary rock exposed on several islands on the
southern edge of the Great Rann of Kachch. Dholavira,
which is located on Khadir island, was largely
constructed of blocks and slabs composed of this
distinctive yellow-brown banded, sand-textured
limestone.
The Important Stone and Metal resources of Gujarat
during the Harappan Period. Randall Law
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EIV 170 -
42,5 * 13 mm
Price: 650 usd
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The Indus limestone beads do not have the same hypnotic
shine as agate or jasper beads. However, they have their own more
discrete world of magic. The patterns in limestone beads are
slightly different from the other bead materials. They follow
other rules of 'sedimentary mathematics' as you can observe in
the bead above.
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EIV 171 -
39 * 11
mm
Price: 650 usd
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As one can observe in these beads, they
also display another variety of colors than other bead
materials. For the color sensitive individual, an ancient
sandstone bead might even be of greater interest than the more
expressive agate and jasper beads.
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EIV 172 -
33 * 10 mm
Price: 600 usd
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EIV 173 -
37,5
* 12,5 mm
Price: 600 usd
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EIV 174 -
36
* 11 mm
Price: 500 usd
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EIV 176 -
32
* 9 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 177 -
24 * 8,5 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 178 -
23 * 8,5 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 179 -
25
* 9 mm
Price: 300 usd
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EIV 180 -
30 * 10 mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV 181 -
30
* 9,5 mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV 183 -
27
* 10,5 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 184 -
26 * 8 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 185 -
25 * 8,5 mm
Price: 300 usd
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EIV 186
-
25,5 *
8
mm
Price: 450 usd
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EIV 187 -
22,5 * 8 * 7 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 188 -
27 * 9 mm
Price: 400 usd
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EIV 189 -
26 * 9 mm
Price: 400 usd
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EIV 190 -
27 * 10 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 191 -
27 * 10 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 192 -
28 * 10 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 193 -
29 * 10 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 194 -
33 * 9.5 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 195 -
22,5 * 8 mm
Price: 300 usd
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EIV 196 -
19
* 8 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 197 -
18,5
* 8 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 198 -
14,5
* 7 mm
Price: 200 usd
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EIV 199 -
15
* 6 mm
Price: 200 usd
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EIV 200 -
17
* 6 mm
Price: 200 usd
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EIV 201 -
20
* 5 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 202 -
29
* 8 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV 203 -
19,5
* 8,5 mm
Price: 200 usd
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EIV 204 -
21
* 8 mm
Price: 200 usd
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EIV 204A -
25,5 * 8 mm
Price: 275 usd
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EIV 205 -
39
* 11 mm
Price: 350 usd
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EIV 206 -
73,5
* 12 mm
Price: 700 usd
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EIV
207
- 34 * 29 * 8,5 mm
Price: 700 usd
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EIV
208
- 37 * 27,5 * 8 mm
Price: 600 usd
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LONG CYLINDER BEADS FROM THE EARLY INDUS VALLEY
CIVILIZATION
The beads displayed below are not from Rakhigarhi. They sourced from
further west. Most probably the are from the older parts of the Indus
Valley civilization located in Pakistan like Harappa.Note that the holes are
even larger than in the above section. They are made of
Amazonite, most probably either from Gujarat from Orissa. Indus amazonite beads are very
rare.
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EIV-GT 1
- 18 * 7
mm
Price: 300 usd
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EIV-GT 2
- 18
* 8 mm
Price: 300 usd
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EIV-GT 3 - 16 * 6 mm
Price: 300 usd
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EIV- GT 4
-
Price: 300 usd
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Elongated
Cylinder
Carnelian Beads
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EIV-T 1 - 29 * 7 mm
Price: 300 usd
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EIV-T 2 - 20 * 8 mm
Price: 300 usd
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EIV-T 3 - 25 * 8 mm
Price: 300 usd
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EIV-T 4 - 20 * 7 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV-T 5 - 19 * 7 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV-T 6 - 20 * 8 mm
Price: 300 usd
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EIV-T 7 - 18 * 8 mm
Price: 300 usd
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EIV-T 8 - 20 * 7 mm
Price: 300 usd
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EIV- T 9 - 16 *
5,5 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV-T 10 - 23 *
6 mm
Price: 300 usd
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EIV- T
11 - 15 *
7 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV-T 12 - 14 *
7 mm
Price: 250 usd
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EIV-T 13 - 14 * 5,5 mm
Price: 250 usd
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Strange Indus Valley Terra Cotta Eye Bead |
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EIV-OIV 1 - 40 * 25 * 21 mm
Price: 1250 usd
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Click on picture for larger image |
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An absolutely unique and very strange jet
stone cobra snake Eye Bead.
Origin: Indus Valley Haryana - Greater India
Read about Eye Beads here
Bead from Mohenjo Daro
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EIV-TBA 16 - 17 * 5 mm
-
SOLD
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What a
masterpiece this little bead is!
There is more hole than bead stone. This bead was
found by my friend Professor Bhandari when he as a young boy,
before partition 1947 together with his school class was
visiting Mohenjo Daro |
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Here you can see the bead in high resolution:
Picture 1
-
Hole
Indus Valey Eye seal Beads |
EIV-OIV 2
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Click on picture for larger image |
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Here is a small display of Indus Valley carnelian beads. You can
find more of these in the
Carnelian bead section.
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EIV-OIV 15
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Largest: 16 * 10 mm - : 8 * 6 mm
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