Re: PIE for early stone-cutters or stone-workers

From: kalyan97
Message: 13460
Date: 2002-04-24

--- In cybalist@..., x99lynx@... wrote:.> Should there be a PIE
word for stone worker or mason? Certainly an old > profession.

Yes, indeed.

There are hundreds of sites in Sarasvati and Sindhu River valleys and
in Gujarat where micro-beads and cylindrical bead-stones have been
drilled through. Even today, in Surat, there is a multi-billion
dollar industry of diamond-cutters.

I suppose the semantics will relate to drilling holes,
rubbing/polishing/faceting, even coloring stones. One group seem
(perhaps lapidaries) to have worked on very small stones and
faience/steatite to create necklaces/seals/tablets; another group
(perhaps masons) worked on structures such as fortifications using
stones (later, burnt/sun-dried bricks), ring-stones to hold polished
stone-pillars on buildings. In Dholavira (Rann of Kutch, Gujarat), a
rock-cut water reservoir with stone-paved steps has been unearthed.