although its location does not match the description in the epics. For lapis
carried across the northern route, a similar center existed at Tepe Hissar.
Some lapis also reached the Harappans, who had links with trading sta-
tions at Shortughai in the Oxus River valley west of the lapis mines. It has
been suggested that these stations may have directed the mining process.
Lapis was carried from Badakhstan to Kabul to Peshawar and down the
Indus River to ports on the Indian Ocean. The transporters in the early part
of the trip may have been nomadic tribesmen making their yearly rounds
seeking pasture. Curiously, the blue stone was never valued among the
Harappans as it was in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Once trading contact with
Sumer was established, the Harappans transshipped all but a small quantity
of their lapis westward.
The great lapis crisis may have been thefirst good opportunity for lapis
from the Indian Ocean to enter the Sumerian market along with other pro-
ducts such as carnelian and ivory. Sumerian records designate Dilmun as a
major source of lapis, and indeed Dilmunite ships probably carried it from
India to Sumer via Dilmun. A later opportunity for the Dilmunite–
Harappan connection came during the Akkadian Empire when the
Akkadians were seeking to establish a monopoly over trade in the lands they
conquered. Their aggressive policies caused some trading partners outside
their orbit to shy away, including the Iranians who were responsible for the
Shahr-i-Sokhta trade. The loss of the overland Iranian trade proved to be a
gain for the Indus-to-Persian Gulf connection.
As civilization spread westward over the following millennia, lapis lazuli
continued to be a popular trade item. But even Pliny, who wrote 4,000 years
after lapisfirst appeared in Mesopotamia, didn’t get his lapis facts right:
“The best,”he tells us,“is found in Persia.”Moreover, lapis stones“are use-
less for engraving because cores like rock-crystal interfere with this.”The
long-gone Sumerians would have been surprised to read this.
Thefirst link 39