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ANTIQUITIES. 



Inquiry into the Composition of 

 some PVeapons and Utensils of 

 ancient Bronze. By M, Klap- 

 roth. 



[From Mr. Nicholson's Journal of Na- 

 tural Philosophy.] 



WE know from ancient au- 

 thors, as well as from 

 weapons and utensils dug up in 

 modern times, that men in the 

 earliest ages, and even those that 

 eucceeded them, employed copper 

 in preference for the fabrication 

 of metallic utensils and weapons. 

 Thus what Herodotus says of the 

 Massagetae, who used no iron, 

 and whose weapons and utensils 

 were of copper, is more or less 

 applicable to all the nations of 

 antiquity. 



The great difference in the ex- 

 terior characters of the two metals 

 in their crude state leaves no 

 doubt, that men were sooner ac- 

 quainted with copper, and the 

 method of adapting it to their 

 purposes, than iron. It is pro- 

 bable that they found copper in 

 large masses and nearl yprepared 

 by nature, as we still meet with 

 it in countries, the mineralogical 

 wealth of which has been little 

 explored. Accordingly in treat- 

 ing the ore by fire they could not 



fail to observe all the advantages 

 of this metal, both with respect 

 to the richness of its produce, 

 and the facility with which it 

 might be forged. Iron, on the 

 contrary, was not so obvious to 

 men's eyes; and the distinguishing 

 of its various ores, with the art of 

 working them and forming weap- 

 ons and instruments of them, 

 could only be the fruit of long 

 experience. 



I shall not avail myself of the 

 numerous testimonies of ancient 

 authors to prove, that copper has 

 been employed in preference to 

 iron, as it is sufficient to appeal to 

 Homer. All weapons both offen- 

 sive and defensive, as swords, 

 spear-heads, helmets, and shields, 

 as well as various domestic uten- 

 sils, were of copper, (»aX;^o;), 

 though in Homer's time iron 

 ((7<S5)fo;) was used, but less fre- 

 quently, and hardened by plung- 

 ing red-hot into water. Even 

 when the advantages of iron, and 

 the modes of fabricating it, were 

 well known, men used copper for 

 their weapons ; for instance in 

 the last ages of the republics of 

 Greece and Rome. 



We know that copper is not fit 

 for the purposes for which the 

 ancients employed it. When cast 



