Utensils and Metallurgical Knowledge in South Asia

Abstract

Drawing upon the examination of historical examples and historical records, and informed by fieldwork in contemporary practices, this study of the production of copper-alloy utensils in South Asia highlights important metalworking technology far from Europe. In the medieval and early modern periods, South Asian craftspeople relied on deep tacit knowledge of local materials, direct low-technology approaches, and a distributed labor system to produce high-quality copper-alloy vessels.