In India, the archaeologists during the excavation in the North in the village of Danapur discovered a stone crusher or the mill, were part of the “sugar factory” and constructed during the reign of the Mughals.
About the opening tells The Times of India. Discovery refers to the period of the late middle ages. It was made on the field of a local farmer.
According to archaeologists, the stone object can be called enormous, considering its purpose. As explained by the Professor of historical faculty of University AMU Manvendra Kumar Pundir, the artifact was a stone sugar mill or crusher for sugar cane.
Its length is about 3.75 meters and a diameter of 2.6 meters. The Professor says that in the medieval period in India sugar crusher is made of two parts – a mortar and pestle. Therefore, the large size of the device impressed the scientists.
“the Indians in ancient times knew how to extract sugar cane juice to produce sugar, says Pundir. – Production technology involves the use of several technical devices.”
Scientists believe that they found the device was created at the dawn of the Mughal Empire (1526 – 1858 years). By the time the technology was already known. “Sugar mills” appeared in India shortly before the Mughal era. The first written evidence of the use of “mortar and pestle” for grinding sugar cane in new Delhi refer to the year 1540.
But historians do not exclude that such devices could appear even earlier. Moreover, they assume that they appeared in the North of modern India, not just in that area, where was found the artifact.
by the Way, in the Mughal era in the country appeared first mechanized device that used a toothed rollers and rolling mills. It is believed that such technologies began to be used in the XVII century.
Professor Abul Fazl, described in his book the different mechanisms of the Mughal Empire, has estimated that white sugar at that time was about three times more expensive than rice, and the price of brown sugar was almost equivalent to rice.
the sugar Empire was much smaller than in West Asia and Europe. Its production was widely established on the territory of modern Bengal, Gujarat and Punjab.
it is believed that advanced manufacturing technology of sugar from the Indians was adopted by Arab merchants, who then brought them to Europe. Even the name “sugar”, according to India, derived from the Sanskrit word “sharkara”. The Persians transformed it into the word “schkar”, the Arabs – in “sukkar”, Romans – in “seachrum” French – in “sucre”, and the British – in “sugar”.
