April 21, 1898] 



NATURE 



597 



Lachish was the headquarters of Sennacherib, during his invasion 

 of Palestine. From it he sent his messengers to Ilezekiah, and 

 at the same town he received the peace offering of the Jewish 

 king, 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold . to raise which 

 he had to despoil his palace and the Temple. In Sennacherib's 

 own version of the transaction, the silver is given as 800 talents, 

 and the gold 30. Lachish was finally deserted about 400 B.C. 



Greece. 



We know little of the very early history of Greece, for the 

 most ancient monuments bear no inscriptions, and literature did 

 not commence till the time of the Homeric poems. In these, 

 and in Hesiod, there are many graphic descriptions of the habits 

 and arts of the heroic period, including the use of metals ; and 

 many of the towns described in them have recently been explored 

 with great success, and have yielded up the very materials about 

 which they sang. 



Probably the earliest find has been in the volcanic island 

 of Santorin, where, under beds of pozzolana, which are sup- 

 posed to date about 2000 B.C., have been found two little rings 

 of beaten gold and a saw of pure copper. In the Ashmolean 

 Museum there are a very ancient silver ball,' and beads of the 

 same metal rolled from the flat ; also a spear-head of copper. 

 These were obtained from Amorgos. In Antiparos there have 

 also been found very ancient objects of silver mixed with 

 copper. 



Passing to the mainland, the towns of the Peloponnesus and 

 the mound of Hissarlik, the supposed Troy, have been ex- 

 plored by Dr. Schliemann, Dr. Tsountas, and Dr. Dorpfeld ; 

 and they reveal what is termed the Mycenrean period, which 

 figures so largely in the poems of Homer and Hesiod. In 

 these the precious metals, gold and silver, are constantly men- 

 tioned, together with xa^f "J, generally translated brass. Thus, 

 in the description of Achilles' shield, we are introduced to 

 Hephaistos at his great forge on Etna, heating the bars of silver, 

 or brass, or tin, or gold, and then hammering them on the 

 anvil, so forming the designs which represent so beautifully the 

 various scenes of peace and war. After having fashioned the 

 shield, he is represented as forging for the warrior a cuirass of 

 copper, greaves of tin, and a helmet with a golden crest. 



Homer frequently mentions iron, but generally gives it the 

 epithet "worked with toil," and treats it as a rare and costly 

 metal. Thus a huge iron discus was given as a valuable prize to 

 the hero who could throw it the farthest in the athletic games 

 at the funeral of Patroclus. 



Mr. W. E. Gladstone, who has long turned the great powers 

 of his mind from time to time to Homeric studies, wrote me 

 last sunimer : "The poems of Homer showed me, I think, 

 forty years ago that they represented in the main a copper age." 

 The reasons he assigns in his letter, as well as in his published 

 works, are fairly conclusive, and the recent explorations, and 

 the analyses of Dr. Percy, Prof. Roberts-Austen, and others, 

 have shown that in the early period of the Myceniiean age 

 copper without tin was employed for numberless purposes ; but 

 as time advanced, bronze came into use. At Hissarlik, in the 

 lowest and second city have been found a gilded knife-blade, 

 needles and pins, of practically pure copper ; while in the third 

 and sixth cities occur battle-axes of copper containing 3 tp 8 

 per cent, of tin. In the very old town of Tiryns, the palace 

 apparently had its walls covered with sheets of copper ; much 

 lead was also found there. At Mycenai, the Achaian capital, 

 the metals in use were gold, silver, copper, bronze and lead ; 

 copper jugs and cauldrons are common, and great leaden jars 

 for storing grain ; also elegant bronze tools and cutlery ; mirrors, 

 razors and swords. In the tombs the bodies are laden with 

 jewels, largely ornaments of gold, with a much smaller amount 

 of silver. 



Some of these objects illustrate the poems of the time ; thus, 

 in the Odyssey we find Nestor making a vow to Athene : "So 

 the heifer came from the field ; ... the smith came holding in 

 his hands his tools, the means of his craft, anvil and hammer, 

 and well-made pincers, wherewith he wrought the gold. 

 Athenae, too, came to receive the sacrifice. And the old knight 

 Nestor gave gold, and the other fashioned it skilfully, and 

 gilded therewith the horns of the heifer, that the goddess might 

 be glad at the sight of her fair offering." Now at Mycenai 

 there was found the model of an ox-head in silver, with its 

 horns gilded, and between them a rosette of gold, not directly 

 attached to the silver, but to a thin copper plate. In Vaphio, 

 a town near Sparta, of a somewhat later period, tombs were 



NO. i486, VOL. 57] 



found containing many beautiful objects in silver, gold and 

 bronze. Especially noteworthy are two golden cups embossed 

 with figures of bulls and men ; in the one case it is a spirited 

 hunt in the woods, in the other a peaceful scene on the meadows. 

 Iron, in Mycenai, appears only as a precious metal of which 

 finger-rings are formed. 



In the remains of a Greek colony in Cyprus, belonging to the 

 end of the Mycenaean period, which is now being explored by 

 the British IMuseum, iron plays a much more important part. 

 At Athens also large iron swords, which belonged to the ninth 

 or tenth century B.C., have been found in an old cemetery. 



After this came the intellectual period of Grecian history. 

 Aristotle must be mentioned in any account of the science of 

 the day ; and he it is who gives us the first description of the 

 metal mercury, and also how to produce the alloy which we 

 call brass, by heating together copper and calamine, the car- 

 bonate of zinc. Metallic zinc, however, was not known for 

 many centuries afterwards. 



Conclusion. 

 In tracing back the history of these great nations we have 

 found evidence of a time when metals were little, if at all, 

 employed : the potter's art was well known, and early man 

 became wonderfully proficient in working hard stone, and 

 especially flint. The earliest indications we have of metals are 

 of gold and copper, both being scarce, and no doubt costly. 

 Gold was probably the earliest to attract the attention of man- 

 kind, because it occurs native, of bright yellow colour, and i» 

 easily worked. Copper, however, dates to a similar period, so ■ 

 far as the remains which have come down to us are concerned. 

 Probably the deep blue carbonate, such as occurs in Armenia, 

 was first worked. When silver was first used is not very - 

 evident, but it is certain that it was far more common in the 

 northern portion of the area we have been considering, than in 

 the southern. The metallurgy of copper was doubtless a matter 

 of much study and experiment, so as to produce the hardest 

 metal. This seems to have led to the discovery of tin, but at 

 what precise period we know not ; nor do we know whether it 

 was brought from Etruria, or found in some nearer region. 

 Mines of tin were certainly worked at Cento Camarelle, as 

 Egyptian scarabs have been found in the old workings,^ and 

 near Campiglia and in Elba, as well as in the Iberian peninsula^ 

 This search for the metals, and the necessity of carrying the ore 

 or rough metal to the places where it was wrought, or of the 

 finished material to distant customers, must have greatly pro- 

 moted commerce. This took place both by land and sea, in 

 caravans and ships. In this way tools and other objects were 

 disseminated through the more distant parts of Europe and 

 Asia : the similarity of type over large areas shows a common 

 origin, and hence we can even roughly form an opinion as to 

 whether they were introduced in earlier or later times. Thus, 

 in Switzerland and Scandinavia we meet with copper imple- 

 ments as well as bronze, and ancient as well as modern forms ;: 

 while in Britain we find no evidence of copper tools, though 

 bronze objects are abundant. 



The Phoenicians, arriving on the eastern shores of the 

 Mediterranean from the direction of the Persian Gulf, formecK 

 an important nation for about 1000 ;y ears, from B.C. 1400 to 

 B.C. 400. They were great artificers, but not having much 

 originality they adopted the patterns and designs of Egypt or 

 Assyria. They were also pre-eminently traders, and founded 

 cities and emporia of commerce, so that their metal work was 

 spread over all the Mediterranean. It is to be found in Cyprus, 

 mixed with the workmanship of the Grecian Mycenjean age. 

 Their ornamental jewellery was eagerly sought in Etruria, 

 Greece and Calabria ; for the beauty of it I may refer you to the 

 Etruscan cup of gold in the South Kensington Museum, and the 

 wonderful work in gold in one of the Greek rooms in the British 

 Museum. 



Commerce implies a large extension of a medium of exchange. 

 The whole question of money is far too wide a subject for us to 

 deal with now ; suffice it to say that Herodotus attributes to the 

 Lydians the introduction of the use of coins. The earliest were 

 of electrum, issued in the form of oval bullets, officially stamped 

 on one side. They date back, perhaps, to B.C. 700; but 

 according to other authorities, silver money was coined at 

 ^Egina more than a century before that time. 



The great period which has been under our coifsideration 



terminated in each conntry with an age of disorder and deterior- 



1 See " Early Man in Britain," by Prof. W, Boyd Dawkins. , 



