DISCOVERERS OF THE ART OF IRON MANUFACTURE—BELOK. sala 
My propositions on the history of the wrought-iron industry! as 
far as the several peoples are considered, have in part received prompt 
and unconditional assent, and in part they have been disputed. 
In this way a welcome clearing of the disputed points was effected 
which will materially facilitate further investigation. 
The Assyriologists admitted that only the very late Assyrian and 
Babylonian inscribed monuments mention iron, and also that in the 
excavations iron objects make their appearance at a comparatively 
late period (ninth to eighth century B. C.). Assyria and Babylonia, 
and with them the entire Assyro-Babylonian culture sphere (espe- 
cially also Elam), are thus definitely eliminated from the circle of 
peoples who might be considered as inventors of the working of iron. 
As regards the Jews, there was at first some opposition. Not that 
they were suspected to have been inventors of ironworking, but 
rather as concerns the age and source of their knowledge of iron, 
which there was a strong inclination to derive from their sojourn in 
Egypt. Heretofore I could produce only indirect proofs in support 
of my views that it was in Canaan that the Jews first learned of iron, 
and the fact that this metal is not mentioned during their wandering 
im the wilderness, or even in the detailed description of the construc- 
tion of the Tabernacle. In the meantime I came across a Biblical 
passage which seems to be direct corroboration of my views, namely, 
in Joshua vi, 19-24: 
But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the 
Lord: they shall come unto the treasury of the Lord. So the people shouted when 
the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the 
sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell 
down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, 
and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both 
man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the 
sword. But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go 
into the harlot’s house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye 
sware unto her. And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, 
and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they 
brought out all her kindred and left them without the camp of Israel. And they 
burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and 
the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. 
Joshua here gives his commands to the Jews, how they should, 
after the conquest of Jericho, deal with the peoples and dispose of the 
captured booty: All living beings, except the family of Rahab, should 
be killed; all the silver and gold, together with the brass and iron 
vessels, should be appropriated to the treasury of the Lord in the 
Tabernacle. This last ordinance is, according to verse 24, punc- 
tually carried out. Now, the ordinance with regard to the gold and 
silver objects is easily understood, in a measure also that for the 
1 Compare especially Zeitschr. Ethnol., 1907, pp. 341-362; ib., 1908, pp. 46-69. 
