84 



NATURE 



[Nov. 2 2, 1883 



may have taken place in a manner similar to that of the 

 formation of coal." 



On testing the beads, which consist chiefly of carbonate 

 of lime or chalk, without the black material in the orifice, 

 the chemist reported that, " when treated in the same 

 manner as those originally sent, they show the presence 

 of a considerable amount of heterogeneous or animal 

 organic matter, as was to be expected from their origin- - 

 but not, I think, so much as those with the black deposit.'' 



Palajolithic Be.ld Ornaments (Coj.-/«o/o>v2 globularis, D'Orb). showing 

 traces of the original hganient and artificial enlargement. 



Mr. A. Clarke, analytical chemist of Huddersfield, who 

 also made an analysis for me, reported as follows : — 



" I divided the bead into three portions. No. i. The 

 thin dark crust forming the internal portion of the ring; 

 this is most certainly organic matter. No. 2. A powdery 

 part between No. i and the main body of the ring, con- 

 sisting of small quantities of carbonates of iron and lime. 

 No. 3. The outer main body of the ring, mostly carbonate 

 of lime, and a small^quantity of silica ; here there is only 

 a trace of organic matter, but it is most distinctly present." 

 WORTHINGTON G. SMITH 



IS IKTIS h\ CORNWALL, AND DID IRON AND 



COPPER PRECEDE TIN? 

 A T Penzance on October 19, 1883, I asserted that the 

 ■^~*- invention of tin-smelting was Cornish, but disputed 

 the claim of .St. Michael's Mount to be the sole claimant 

 to the title of Iktis, the tin -shipping port described by 

 Diodorus Siculus iSoo years ago, and 1 thought the in- 

 ventions of metals were in this order : (i) iron, (2) copper, 

 (3) tin. We may consider the Romans invaded Britain 

 purposely to obtain its metals, which were then worked 

 extensively by the British inhabitants. I believe the 

 Romans either adopted Celtic names of places or things, 

 or translated their meaning. I find the Cornish district, 

 or Land's End, described by Ptolemy the geographer in 

 the second century as " Belerium," that is the land of 

 mines," bal " being Cornish for a mine. The word is also 

 met with in Irish. In the same manner the skin boats 



used by the Cornishmen, which so much astonished the 

 Greek travellers, were described by the Greeks under the 

 name of "coracles," evidently a Celtic word from the Celtic 

 root "cren " or " croen," skin. So tin, 1 think, is derived 

 from the Irish word " teine," Welsh "tan,'' teine 

 probably also expressing brightness. Even in the Malay 

 Peninsula, in the East Indies, a word of similar sound, 

 "timah," still stands for " tin," and not the Greek term 

 for that metal "kassiteros." 



Then the Cornish term " iarnn," for iron is similar to 

 English "iron," German "Eisen," Welsh " haiarn," 

 Greek " seiderion," in which c/ is the important syllable. 

 The Latin word "ferrum" is probably a form of " ierrum," 

 and the Sanskrit "ayas" is for iron, metal. Nearly the same 

 word for iron is therefore used in all the Aryan languages, 

 while " a:s " or "kalkos" stands for bronze or copper, 

 and has only a comparatively local extension. The wide 

 spread of the name for iron, or ei, is important, as it points 

 to iron being the metal made before the division of the 

 Aryan race, and therefore before copper or tin. 



Thjre is another and I believe new argument. The 

 most easy process of copper-smelting, which even now 

 is largely used, may have been the only plan known in 

 prehistoric times. To use this process it was necessary 

 to provide iron to precipitate copper from solution. At 

 the present time 6000 tons of iron are sent annually to 

 the Rio Tinto mines in Spain from Great Britain in order 

 to precipitate the copper from solution. 



It is possible that the discovery of the art of producing 

 crude iron, which would be useful for precipitating copper, 

 may have preceded the invention of bronze, and yet the 

 art of forging difficult pieces may have been a later inven- 

 tion than that of casting bronze celts in metal moulds. 



Iron, if not steel, appears to have been made in Egypt 

 both in hearths and in crucibles certainly before 3124 B.C., 

 but bronze was more used in Greece up to 650 B.C. than 

 iron. 



The smith in the sagas and folklore is the important 

 person, not the caster or founder of bronze weapons. 

 Why was the smith so important .' Because he melted 

 the small particles of gold found in the streams into small 

 lumps, and with his hammer drew them out into wire and 

 thin plates. Gold was made in such small quantities that 

 it did not require large crucibles such as would be neces- 

 sary for bronze. As iron was made by a simple welding 

 or forging process, its production appears to be a more 

 ancient art than bronze casting, which required large 

 crucibles and mixing in exact proportions with tin, a 

 process more difficult than in the infancy of metallurgy 

 was likely to be invented. Then one ore of iron, ochre 

 was the first metallic ore collected, long before the dis- 

 covery of any of the metal. Ochre is found collected for 

 use as a paint to ornament the cave men in the Palaeo- 

 lithic period, and is associated with limestone and char- 

 coal. Accident in the fire might have thus led to the 

 discovery of metallic iron in very early times. Such 

 particles of iron placed in a certain stream in the Island 

 of Anglesea (an early peopled district) would precipitate 

 the copper in solution in that stream in a state of pure 

 copper ready to mix with tin to make bronze. 



Another point of great interest in this question is the 

 position of Roman roads, proving a prior metallurgical 

 trade, and therefore some considerable civilisation. The 

 Romans erected their Roman villas and camps always near 

 Roman roads, and these roads appear always arranged 

 for military or metallurgical purposes, never for protect- 

 ing agriculture, or levying imposts on the Britons. There 

 is historical evidence that the Romans did not introduce 

 metallurgy into Britain. 



We may observe there is a great concentration of 

 Roman roads at Winchester (Venta Belgarum). Roads 

 meet at the point of junction from Exeter with this town, 

 for bringing Cornish or Dartmoor tin, or lead and iron 

 from the Mendips, to the Hampshire coast ; iron from 



