USE OF METALS BY ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 699 



right side of the corpse to remove the viscera preparatory to embalming. 

 They were engraved with the symbolic eye-emblem of the sun-god Shu. 

 But the principal use of tin was in the manufacture of the two alloys, 

 bronze and solder, of which the former was many times the more impor- 

 tant. Solder, the alloy of lead and tin, was very much used in the 

 metal-worker's craft. The sources from which the Egyptians drew 

 their supply of tin are not known. It is believed by some that the 

 Phoenicians brought it from Spain and later from the shores of Britain. 

 It has also been suggested that it may have been brought from the East 

 Indies by very indirect channels of trade. Whatever may have been 

 the source of supply, tin was used in large quantities by the ancient 

 Egyptians. 



Silver. Silver and gold were the precious metals of Egypt. In 

 very early times silver was the rarer and more precious. This is prob- 

 ably due to the fact that it was not produced in Egypt or the neighbor- 

 ing countries. In later times when commerce developed and the prod- 

 ucts of all the earth began to come to the ports of the Nile and the Eed 

 Sea the two metals changed places in respect to value. The greater 

 rarity of silver in the earlier dynasties is shown by its very limited use, 

 as well as by the fact that in the old inscriptions it always stands before 

 gold. Gold was lavished on the mummies and on the tomb decorations 

 of the wealthy, but silver was seldom used in this way. In the temple 

 decorations silver played but a small part, and in the ceremonies by 

 which rank and title were bestowed upon faithful officers and court 

 favorites, silver is rarely mentioned. The gifts to the king rarely 

 include it, though copper and bronze are generally mentioned. 



But about the time of the eighteenth dynasty the Phoenicians and 

 Syrians brought much silver from Cilicia, and the island of Cyprus 

 sent this metal to Egypt, as is shown by the Tell-el-Amarna letters. 

 From this time the use of silver is much more common for many pur- 

 poses than that of gold. King Kamses III. records the fact that during 

 his reign of thirty-one years he gave to the temples, among other gifts : 

 1,015 kg. of gold, 2,994 kg. of silver, 940 kg. of black bronze and 

 13,060 kg. of bronze. Its use, likewise, in the arts became much more 

 common, both alone and in the alloy usm or electron. 



In the nineteenth dynasty, Bamses II. and Khita-sir, king of the 

 Hittites, made a treaty for mutual protection and support. A silver 

 tablet has been found on which is engraved the whole text of the treaty, 

 and it is almost as wordy as similar documents of the present day. 



The work of the silversmith was similar to that of the goldsmith, 

 and vases of the Middle Empire (2130-1530) show more than average 

 elegance of design and delicacy of workmanship, but the very elaborate 

 work often found on objects of gold is rarely seen on those of silver. 

 It is a remarkable fact that gilded silver is found. 



