DISCOVERERS OF THE ART OF IRON MANUFACTURE BELCK. 511 



My propositions on the history of the wrought-iron industry 1 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-Baby Ionian 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 

 in 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 bras3 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 



i Compare especially Zeitschr. Ethnol., 1907, pp. 341-362; ib., 1908, pp. 46-69. 



