USE OF METALS BY ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 697 



many centuries, their elasticity is almost equal to that of the best steel. 



The working of bronze was one of the more honorable branches of 

 industry, and must have furnished labor for a large number of men. 

 Of the various subdivisions of this industry, that of the armorer was 

 held in highest esteem. Eeference has already been made to the lack 

 of data concerning the metallurgy of copper and of bronze. But the 

 finished products show that furnaces and smelting pots of large size 

 must have been used in preparing the molten alloy for the molds. The 

 bronze work of different periods shows varying degrees of skill, and it 

 is difficult to say at what time the bronze workers attained the greatest 

 excellence in their art. Both cast and hammered bronze work is found, 

 which in grace of outline and perfection of finish has rarely, if ever 

 been surpassed. The more elaborately finished work includes chasing, 

 inlaying with precious stones, gold and silver, designs in gold and silver 

 wire inlaid with other bronzes, enamels and precious stones. The 

 method of inlaying with gold and silver consisted in making a groove 

 in the bronze, laying the gold on and hammering it into place. 



It would be almost impossible to enumerate the uses to which bronze 

 was put. Some of the more important are : weapons and armor ; farm 

 implements (in part), artisans' tools, household utensils; boat and 

 chariot building; architectural hardware, such as nails, bolts, hinges, 

 locks; statuary, images, decorative objects and articles for personal 

 adornment. 



Iron. Iron never found wide favor in ancient Egypt, but there are 

 abundant evidences that it was used side by side with bronze for tools 

 of various kinds. There is no reason to believe that it was ever com- 

 monly used for decorative purposes, either in architecture or otherwise. 

 The finding of iron bracelets proves that it was occasionally used for 

 personal adornment. Even its use for tools seems to have been much 

 more limited than that of bronze. 



It has been suggested that the scarcity of iron objects may be ac- 

 counted for, in part at least, by the readiness with which iron is 

 destroyed by oxid'ation, especially in a soil so rich in niters as that of 

 Egypt. It is also significant that the Asiatic neighbors of the Egyp- 

 tians — the Hebrews, the Canaanites, the Chaldeans, the Babylonians 

 and other contemporaneous peoples were familiar with the uses of iron. 



Lepsius believes that this metal was used in Egypt as early as 3000 

 B.C., that it served primarily for hard instruments, and was prepared 

 in smelting furnaces. The Great Pyramid was built by Khufu 

 (Cheops), of the fourth dynasty, and not later than 2800 B.C. 

 Herodotus says that iron tools were used in the construction of the 

 great Pyramids, though others find reason to believe that the tools used 

 were of tempered bronze. The question is of little importance in view 

 of the fact that a band of iron was found in an inner joint of the 

 Pyramid of Cheops, where the ancient architect placed it. 



