608 Dr. J. H. Gladdone [Feb. 11. 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, February 11, 1898. 



Siu EiAVAiiD Frankland, K.C.B. D.C.L. LL.D. F.R.S. 



Vice-PresideDt, in the Cliair. 



J. H. Gladstone, Esq. D.Sj. F.R.S. M.E.L 



The Metals used hij the Great Xations of Antiquitij. 



At the beginning of this century little was known of the great 

 nations of antiquity, except through the classic poets and historians, 

 and the sacred writings of the Hebrew people. Since then onr know- 

 ledge has been enormously increased by the labours of scholars and 

 explorers; the ruins of ancient cities have been exhumed, and the 

 contemporary literature of Egypt and Assyria, inscribed on papyri 

 or tablets of clay, and painted or carved on the walls of temples, 

 palaces and tombs, has been deciphered. AVhat is in some respects 

 still more important is, that objects found in these ruins have thrown 

 great light upon the daily life of the people and their ornamental 

 and useful arts. One of the departments of this inquiry concerns the 

 metals used by the different nations, and at the different epochs of 

 their history ; and it is to this department that my attention will be 

 confined this evening. The difficulty I experience is the vast amount 

 of material ; and I cannot attempt anything more than a general view 

 of the subject and some of the most salient points. 



The area over which the inquiry extends is that of the lands 

 bordering on the eastern half of the Mediterranean, and stretching 

 eastwards to the Persian Gulf. The time, so far as Egypt is con- 

 cerned, includes the whole period from the first Pharaoh, Mencs, to 

 the conquest of the country by Alexander the Great ; ranging from 

 about B.C. 4400 to b.c. 332. The chronology employed throughout is 

 that of Dr. Wallis Budge, of the British Museum, who has adopted in 

 the main that of Brugsch Bey. This period of 4000 years appears to 

 me of reasonable length, and errs, if anything, on the side of modera- 

 tion. Our kuowledge of the other nations docs not extend to any- 

 thing like so remote a time. 



Egypt. 



If we take as our starting-point Seueferu's triumphal tablet in 

 Wady Maghara, in the Sinaitic peninsula, we see the king flourishing 

 his battle-axe over the head of his enemy. This symbolises the 

 conquest of the copper and turquoise mines of that region, and implies 

 of course their previous oxisteucc as a source of wealth. In the 



