THE AGE OF BRONZE IN EGYPT.* 



BY OSCAR MONTELIUS. 



It is generally admitted that bronze was known and made nse of in 

 Egypt from the earliest times of the ancient empire, about 0,000 years 

 ago:t but authors do not agree so well in respect to iron. The major- 

 ity afldrm that this metal was also known in the valley of the Nile at 

 an epoch not less remote. Very strong reasons however ai)pear to 

 me to demonstrate that it was in the second millenium before the 

 Christian era, that the use of iron possessed in Egypt an importance 

 that authorizes us to speak of an age of iron in that country. The 

 greater part of the time, then, that embraces Egyptian civilization 

 should be considered as an age of bronze. 



Assuredly to the majority of persons this conclusion will appear un- 

 expected, if not absurd. Egyptian civilization, in fact, during the period 

 mentioned was eminent to a degree that can scarcely be believed pos- 

 sible without an acquaintance with iron. But we must not forget that 

 the Aztecs in Mexico, with their civilization largely" developed, were 

 still living in a pure age of bronze on the first arrival of Europeans. 

 The most important and almost note-worthy reason that has been 

 cited to establish the age of iron in Egypt several thousand years be- 

 fore the Christian era is that at this remote epoch massive edifices 

 were already erected there in wrought stone, and that this stone is so 

 hard that it can be cut only with implements of iron, or rather of steeL 

 The celebrated German Egyptologist, Mr. Lepsius, aftirms: "Great 

 masses of carved granite, certain si)ecimens of which are met with Irom 

 the fourth dynasty of Man^thoii, do not i)crmit us to quesiion that iron 

 was known at that era."| On the other hand it has been established by 



* Translated from L'Anthropologie, January, 1890, vol. i, p. 25. 



t Perrott and Cliipiez: Histoirc de VArt Vantiquite, vol.i, fiyypte, p. 829. Arceliu : 

 Jvjfiience Kgjjptuniie jxndant Vaxje du bronze, in the Materlaux pour V histoirc de rhomme, 

 18t)9, p. 377. In making deep drills in Ej^ypt "a copper knife" vA'as discovered at a 

 depth of 24 feet (Mook, AujtjptenH vormetaUiacJie zeit, p. 5). The British Museum 

 possessed a few axes of bronze with descriptions from the time of the sixth dynasty, 

 or about the middle of the third millenium before the Christian era A Guide to the 

 Egyptian Hooms (in the British mnscMm), p. 48. 



t hepsius, Lea Melaux, dans Ics Inscriptions Egyptiennes, translated from the German 

 by W. Berend, Paris, 1687, p. 57. 



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