514 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 



Von Luschan thus does not consider that the Egyptians themselves 

 were the inventors of ironworking, but rather attributes to them a 

 secondary r61e, and in so far I agree with him as against that group 

 of scholars who, notwithstanding all the proofs brought forth, still 

 maintain that the origin of the iron industry is to be sought in Egypt. 



If von Luschan's view be correct, the following conditions must first 

 of all be fulfilled: 



1 . There must be proof of the existence of an iron industry among 

 the Negroes in the very ancient period assumed by von Luschan. 



2. It must be proven that ironworking was in very ancient time 

 imported from the Negro territories into Egypt, and there practically 

 employed. 



3. It must be proven that, and the manner how, the industry spread 

 from Egypt to Asia and Europe. 



As to the first proposition, Schweinfurth, like von Luschan, also 

 considers the iron industry of the Negro peoples as native (not 

 imported) and of probably considerable antiquity, although he hardly 

 seems to be inclined with von Luschan to ascribe to it an age of from 

 4,000 to 5,000 years or even more. Von Luschan offers no proof for 

 such a high antiquity of that industry among the Negroes, and we 

 may concede to him that on this question conclusive proofs can 

 scarcely be expected. Von Luschan therefore tries verisimilar proof, 

 pointing out: 



On the old Egyptian mural paintings are often seen dark people presenting to the 

 Pharaoh blue-colored objects (weapons, knives, etc.). I assume with many other 

 investigators that the dark people represent Negroes, and the blue-colored weapons 

 are iron ones, hence the Negroes were then in possession of an iron industry. 



This method of proof involves some serious errors ; for, on the one 

 hand, it assumes two premises which are by no means generally 

 conceded, and on the other hand, the derived conclusion is false. 



(a) There is thus far no proof that the dark people represented 

 Negroes, African Negroes, and if one should wish to recognize them as 

 the likewise dark inhabitants of the Arabian west coast and of part 

 of the Sinaitic peninsula, he could scarcely be convinced of being 

 wrong. We may call to mind the tradition of the ancients (compare 

 Herodotus i, 1, and vii, 89), according to which the Punt-Punians- 

 Phenicians had, previous to their immigration into Phenicia, lived at 

 the Red Sea, and they received their name from the dark-reddish 

 color of their skin. In my opinion we have in the relation by Herodo- 

 tus an historic account of great importance which, very agreeably, 

 is supported and corroborated by Biblical data, for this same state- 

 ment is indirectly but distinctly made. I refer, in the first place, to 

 I Kings ix, 26-28, where it reads: 



And King Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on 

 the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his 



