698 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Thebes and Memphis are so ancient that history has preserved no 

 record of their founding. Yet in the tombs of these long-decayed 

 cities are found tools and other articles of iron, some of which may be 

 seen among the treasures of the New York Historical Society. An 

 ancient inscription at Harnak tells us that Thothmes I., who reigned 

 in the eighteenth dynasty (probably 1500 B.C.), received from his chiefs 

 and vassal kings, ' bars of wrought metal and vessels of copper and of 

 bronze and of iron,' and from near Memphis he received lead, iron, 

 wine and wrought metal. Iron was so highly prized that it was con- 

 sidered a desirable article of plunder, and the soldiers of this same 

 monarch, on their return from fighting Chadasha, brought ' iron of 

 the mountains, 40 cubes.' An iron sickle was found beneath one of 

 the sphynxes at Harnak, but it may have been placed there not more 

 than 600 years B.C. When the great obelisk that now stands in Central 

 Park, New York, was taken from its original position on the banks of 

 the Nile, a piece of very pure iron was found beneath it. ' Pieces of 

 iron tools have been found at various places, bedded in masonry of 

 very ancient date' (E). In the twenty-fifth dynasty iron was used 

 for the door frames of the temple of Ptah. Very few of the iron relics 

 found are well enough preserved to show the character of the workman- 

 ship, but they do show that the art of tempering iron was known at a 

 very early date. 



The known sources of Egyptian iron include the desert region of 

 the south between the Nile and the Eed Sea, and the Sinai peninsula. 

 At Hamami in the desert there are the workings of an ancient iron 

 mine from which hematite was taken, but no evidences of smelting 

 have been reported from this locality. The mines of the Sinai region 

 must have been an important source of this metal as well as of copper. 

 In 1873 ruins of extensive iron works of great antiquity, but of un- 

 doubted Egyptian origin, were discovered near the Wells of Moses, and 

 it is possible that ancient Arabia learned the metallurgy of iron from 

 the Egyptians. There is also reason to believe that iron was imported 

 from Chaldea, Phoenicia, Babylonia and Assyria. 



Of the metallurgical processes used in the treatment of iron ores 

 little is known. Oxides or ochers of iron were used for the yellow, 

 brown and red pigments so commonly used in Egyptian art. Some of 

 the iron articles found are tools of various kinds, weapons, bracelets, 

 keys, wire, door-frames, fish-hooks, etc. 



The inscriptions make but few, if any, references to tin, and com- 

 paratively few articles made of that metal have been found. For these 

 reasons, it is held by some writers that the ancient peoples, the Egyp- 

 tians included, did not understand the separation of the metal from its 

 ores. But the fact that plates of pure tin have been found in consid- 

 erable number in the tombs is an answer to those who hold this view. 

 These plates were shaped and used to cover the incision made in the 



