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Probable source of rocks for millstones and cannon balls of Goa, India

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Title Probable source of rocks for millstones and cannon balls of Goa, India
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Creator Ambekar, Abhijit. S., Sridhar D. N., Ray, S.K. et al.
 
Subject Cannon balls, gunpowder, millstones, rock source.
 
Description Not Available
The Europeans started to come to India at the beginning
of the 16th century for trade. The Portuguese were the
first group of Europeans to reach the southwestern
coast of India in 1498 and establish their colonies.
They were also the last group of the Europeans to
leave the Indian territory after ruling a part of the
country for about 450 years. With their arrival, new
technology and warfare tactics were introduced in the
region. Associated with their artillery, preparation of
gunpowder as a new technology was introduced in
Goa. Gigantic sized millstones were used for the production
of gunpowder in Casa de Polvora, Panelim,
Goa. In 2007, when real estate developers commenced
their construction work at Casa de Polvora, the
Archaeological Survey of India salvaged the endangered
millstones from Panelim. The aim of the present
communication is to analyse the samples and to find
out whether the stone used was quarried from Dharavi
(Uttan; which was a part of Bassein territory of the
Portuguese) from where the Portuguese acquired
stones on a large scale for the decoration of churches
in Goa. To achieve this, archaeological, petrographic,
mineralogical and geochemical studies have been
carried out on samples of millstones and the quarried
site at Dharavi (Uttan). In addition sample was also
collected from cannon ball found at Arsenal (Old Goa)
to find out whether stone from Dharavi (Uttan) was
used. The analytical results suggest that the millstones
are made of limestone, the Dharavi (Uttan) stone is
more siliceous – and the cannon balls are made from
basalt.
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Date 2020-05-22T13:49:23Z
2020-05-22T13:49:23Z
2015-01-25
 
Type Research Paper
 
Identifier Ambekar, Abhijit. S., Sridhar D. N., Ray, S.K., Bhattacharyya, T., Anantwar, S.G., Sahu, V. T. and Gaikwad, M. S. (2015) Research Communication: Probable Source of rocks for millstone and cannon balls of goa, India. Current Science, 108, (02):273-282 p
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http://krishi.icar.gov.in/jspui/handle/123456789/36159
 
Language English
 
Relation Not Available;
 
Publisher Not Available