Pr ade e p k. Be h e r a an d Pr an a b k c h at toPadh YaY

Concluding remarks
the foregoing discussion on the Badmal asurgarh site clearly 
reveals that the rich bio-habitat and the vast mineral resources 
of the region have attracted human occupation right from 
the beginning of the first millennium Bce. the settlement 
developed out of the existing iron age cultures of the middle 
Mahanadi Valley, and rose to prominence during the early 
historic period as a bead manufacturing centre in this part 
of the orissa highlands. domestic trade was perhaps one of 
the important factors in this process of development. this 
study had revealed that, in addition to locally available gem 
resources for manufacturing beads for regional and extra-
regional trade or exchange, the early historic bead workers 
of Badmal also imported cowry shells and finished items 
of onyx and coral from more distant places. iron definitely 
played a catalytic role in the development of the specialised 
bead industry at the site, as attested by the iron tools that 
were employed to craft the beads. Presumably in exchange 
for finished beads, the settlers were importing iron objects, 
as well as other raw materials, such as banded-hematite-red-
jasper, agate, etc. for large-scale bead production. 
the chemical analysis clearly indicates a non-meteoric 
origin of the analysed iron samples. While the uniform 
distribution of slag inclusions is indicative of wrought 
iron, one of the specimens may be identified as low carbon 
steel. the earliest iron object, sample BdM-18, is definitely 
primitive in terms of the technology employed for its making. 
in table 4, while the composition of each iron object is shown, 
the values of aluminium contents, which are considered as 
essential constituent of the entrapped slag particles, are not 
shown. the total slag contents, therefore, may be identified 
as 3.59, 1.574, 2.37, and 2.79 per cent, respectively. this is 
clearly indicative of technological improvements regarding 
the elimination of slag particles between the iron age and 
early historic periods. not only did we find an increase in 
craft-related tool types, but the introduction of low carbon 
steel making is also visible during the post-iron age period. 
it is often mentioned that the iron age smiths of the indian 
sub-continent applied ‘layering and forging techniques’. 
one of the recent advancements in making modern steel 
and alloy steels has been the use of micro-alloy. the presence of 
vanadium and chromium in three of the four analysed samples 
of Badmal is attested in the results of the PiXe analysis. thus 
one may conclude that the smiths realised the characteristic 
capability of the ores was the potential of producing tough 
steels, with which they needed to manufacture drill bits 
(chattopadhyay et al., 2011)
Future investigations will definitely shed more light on the 
various aspects of the state of iron technology in the pre-
christian era middle Mahanadi Valley of orissa highlands.