258 Mr. J. Phillips on Ancient Metallurgy and Mining 



Art. XX. — Thoughts on Ancient Metallurgy and Mining in 

 Brigantia and, other parts of Britain, suggested by a page of 

 Pliny J s Natural History; by John Phillips, Esq., F.R.S., 



F.G.S. 



(Continued from p. 102.) 



Did the Cornish or Gallician miners make bronze? For this 

 is generally the compound indicated by the Roman ceris metalla, 

 though it is undoubted that they also knew of, and distinguished 

 zinc brass. There is, I believe, no instance of a single bit ot 

 pure tin or pure copper being found with the numerous ' celts,' 

 which occur in so many parts of England ; nor is any other proof 

 given that the direct union of tin and copper was effected by the 

 natives of Britain. Copper is so abundant in Cornwall that it 

 might tempt to the other hypothesis; but this copper is a sul- 

 phuret ; it is found united to the sulphuret of iron, in deep veins, 

 and in a matrix of quartz ; and these are things which render 

 the production of pure copper one of the most refined operations 

 in smelting. Caesar tells us the brass used by the natives of 

 Britain was imported. Probably Cyprus, — colonized by the 

 Phoenicians, to which old authors refer as the original source ot 

 brass — Cyprus with its ancient copper mines (Tamassus), which 

 has given its name to the metal, might be one of the points from 

 which bronze radiated over the Grecian, Roman and barbarian 

 world. It was from Cinyras, the king of Cyprus, that Agamem- 

 non received his splendid breastplate with twenty plates of tin, 

 and its liberal additions of turquoise, lazulite, or rather malachite, 



obtained perhaps from the soil of the island. (Pliny, xxxiii, p. 

 633, Hard.) 



The works of "ifyaura?, the Crawshay of antiquity, may have 

 been fixed on Lemnos on account of some volcanic appearances 

 there ; but the tradition shows at least that the various operations 

 of refined metallurgy were not strangers to the islands of the 

 Mediterranean ; and the uniformity of design and composition in 

 the ancient celts, chisels, wUfIIu, and instruments of war, implies 

 a common, and that not a barbarous origin. The perfection and 

 variety and great proportions of the brass work executed in the 

 Grecian states and colonies, may also be regarded as indicating 

 the local seat of the early as well as the later art of working in 

 bronze. 



Lead was obtained in Spain and Gaul from deep and laborious 

 mines (xxxiv, p. 669, Hard.), but so abundantly near the surface 

 in Britain as to suggest a law for preventing more than a limited 

 production — a Brigantian law of vend. The Romans employed 

 lead in pipes (fistulas) and sheets, which were soldered with 

 alloys, as already mentioned. This lead was previously refined, 



