Long carnelian beads, sometimes more than 12 centimeters long, were a specialty of the Indus Civilization. These beads have been found as far away as the Arabian Gulf and Mesopotamia.
Collections of beads were sometimes stored in small pots. One such collection of beads and other objects from several periods was found in a small pot inside a room at Harappa dating to circa 1800 B.C. (the Cemetery H Culture at Harappa). This collection may represent the effort of someone to collect beads that had been lost in earlier periods or passed down by previous generations.