USE OF METALS BY ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 687 



MINING AND USE OF METALS BY THE ANCIENT 



EGYPTIANS.* 



By Professor R. D. GEORGE, 



UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO. 



HMHE use of metals by the ancients antedates authentic history. So 

 -"- far as the discoveries of the archeologist have shown, the metals 

 first used by mankind were those which occur native, such as gold, silver 

 and copper. These three possess qualities which would appeal to the 

 primitive workman. They are all bright and beautiful when polished, 

 they are all malleable and easily shaped with the hammer, they respond 

 readily to the graving tool and are highly resistant to fire. The 

 ancient Egyptians knew, and used, gold, copper, silver, iron, lead and 

 tin, and the alloys, bronze, brass, electron and solder. The fact that 

 brass was used has led some Egyptologists to believe that zinc was 

 known, but the unalloyed metal has not been found, nor do the inscrip- 

 tions contain any reference to it. The majority of writers, therefore, 

 hold that the brass was produced by mixing some ore of zinc, possibly 

 calamine, with copper ores in the smelting furnace. The oxide of 

 manganese is supposed to have been an article of commerce between the 

 Bedouins of the Sinai peninsula and the ancient Egyptians. 



' Nub/ the Egyptian word for gold, is found in the oldest inscrip- 

 tions, and at Beni-Hassan, a series of pictures dating back to the 

 twelfth dynasty, 2130-1930 B.C., illustrate the whole process of ma- 

 king gold ornaments. Centuries before this, the Nubians had mined 

 gold in the mountainous, desert regions between the Nile and the Eed 

 Sea, and it has been suggested that the name Nubia is derived from 

 the name of the metal. The Egyptian kings of the twelfth dynasty 

 invaded Nubia and finally annexed that part of the territory containing 

 the gold mines, and built and garrisoned a wall which should mark the 

 boundary between the two peoples. The mines were vigorously oper- 

 ated by the new owners, and the quantity of gold in the land of the 



* The materials for this article have been drawn from many sources, and 

 it would be impossible to give specific references, as a single sentence may con- 

 tain facts taken from several writers. The principal works consulted are: 

 Birch (ed.), 'Records of the Past'; Brugsch-Bey, 'Egypt under the Pharaohs'; 

 Mahaffy, 'Empire of the Ptolemies'; Maspero-Sayce, 'Dawn of Civilization'; 

 Rawlinson, ' Ancient Egypt ' ; Perrot and Chipiez, ' History of Ancient Egyptian 

 Art ' ; Winckler, ' The Tell-el-Amarna Letters ' ; Adams, ' Egypt Past and Pres- 

 ent'; Von Meyer, 'History of Chemistry'; Erman, 'Life in Ancient Egypt'; 

 Chas. J. Alford, Eng. and Min. Jour., Vol. 73; Professor Petrie in Harper's for 

 July, 1888. 



