THE METALS OF ANCIENT CIIALDEA. 223 



luminous, glittering crystals, of very hard but fragile material. On 

 analysis it appeared to be nearly pure metallic antimony, containing no 

 notable proportion either of copper, lead, bismuth, or zinc, but only 

 some traces of iron. The j^atina was an oxysulphuret, which had been 

 formed by the action of the traces of sulphureted hydrogen which 

 exist in the atmosphere. The existence of such a fragment — of a cast 

 vase of pure antimony — is singular, for this metal is not employed pure 

 for any such use in modern industry, although it is often used in 

 alloys ; and I know of no similar example in the vessels either of the 

 present or of past times. I had been told, however, that the Japanese 

 used antimony in their manufactures, and I had been presented with 

 a little winged dolphin which was supposed to be made of antimony. 

 But the analysis of this dolphin showed that it was composed of zinc 

 and other associated metals, and was far from being formed of pure 

 antimony. If pure antimony has really been employed by the Japan- 

 ese — which I doubt — there v.'ould have been a curious relation with 

 ancient Chaldean customs. 



An extremely curious circumstance, moreover, is the finding of this 

 authentic manufactured fragment of antimony at Tello, a place which 

 had been uninhabited since the time of the Parthians, and which con- 

 tains the remains of the oldest Chaldean civilization. Antimony, in 

 fact, is supposed not to have been known to the ancients, and not to 

 have been discovered till toward the fifteenth century. Yet we find 

 that the ancients were very w'ell acquainted with our sulphuret of 

 antimony, a natural mineral which they called stibium or stimme, and 

 which they employed for many uses, particularly in medicine. A 

 passage in Dioscorides, repeated by Pliny, leads me to believe that 

 metallic antimony had been obtained in his time. "We read, in short, 

 in Dioscorides (" Materia Medica," book iv, chapter xcix) : " This min- 

 eral is burned by placing it on coals and blowing them to incan- 

 descence ; if the calcining is prolonged, it changes into lead 

 (/AoAv^Soviat)." Pliny says, likewise ("Hist. Nat.," book xxxiii, 

 chapter xxxiv) : " The calcining must be done with precaution, in 

 order not to change it into lead («e />/^<w^5^^wi ^«0-" These observa- 

 tions agree with phenomena well known to chemists. In fact, the 

 calcining of sulphuret of antimony, particularly in the presence of 

 charcoal, may easily bring it to the condition of fusible and metallic 

 antimony, a substance which Pliny and his contemporaries confounded 

 along with all other dark and easily fusible metals, with lead. The 

 existence of the Tello vase proves that in Mesopotamia, likewise, and 

 in probably a much more ancient age, they had tried to make cast 

 vases with this supposed variety of lead, which was less liable to 

 change than ordinary lead. 



The metallic votive figurine of Tello suggests no less curious ob- 

 servations. It represents a divine personage, kneeling and holding a 

 kind of metallic point or cone. It has engraved upon it the name of 



