264 



REPORTS ON THE STATE OE SCIENCE, ETC. 



Sutnerian Copper. — Second Interim Report of Committee (Mr. H. J. E. 

 Peake, Chairman ; Mr. G. A. Garfitt, Secretary ; Mr. H. Balfour, 

 Mr. L. H. Dudley Buxton, Prof. Gordon Childe, Prof. C. H. 

 Desch, Prof. H. J. Fleure, Prof. S. Langdon, Mr. E. Mackay, Sir 

 Flinders Petrie, Mr. C. Leonard Woolley) appointed to report on 

 the probable source of the supply of copper used by the Sumerians. 



(By Prof. C. H. Desch, F.R.S., University of Sheffield.) 



The grant made at the Glasgow Meeting has made it possible to employ Mr. E. S. 

 Carey on the work of analysis since the beginning of last session. A variety of material 

 has been examined, but the bulk of the specimens from Ur have not been received 

 in time to include the results in this report. The specimens from Mohenjo-Daro, 

 which were analysed numbered 64, most of which were of copper containing no more 

 than traces of nickel. Twenty of them, however, contained appreciable quantities 

 of nickel, the highest value found being 1-49 per cent., whilst 0-3 per cent, was more 

 usual, the proportion thus being similar to that found in specimens from Mesopotamia. 

 Nine of the specimens proved to be bronze, with tin ranging from 5-6 to 19-1 per cent., 

 those rich in tin containing little or no nickel. The specimens from the 1927 excava- 

 tions were richer in nickel than those found in 1920. 



A parcel of specimens from the grave of Queen Shubaid at Ur was received. A 

 bronze bowl, of which many fragments were found, contained 8-3 per cent, of tin and 

 0-51 per cent, of nickel. Silver fragments from the same source were found to contain 

 a small proportion of gold. These specimens show the laminated structure of corroded 

 bronze and silver objects very well, and an investigation is in progress, the object of 

 which is to determine the mechanism of corrosion, in order to decide as to the extent 

 to which analysis of a completely corroded object may be taken as indicating the 

 composition of the original metal. This investigation, on which a fuUer report wUl 

 be made later, involves the preparation of micro-sections as well as chemical analysis. 



Nickel in quantities ranging from 0-006 to 0-21 per cent, was found in a series of 

 six tin bronzes from the 1928 work at Kish, the tin varying from 3 to 13 per cent. 

 A small fragment included in the original batch of material received from Miss Bell 

 gave tin 3-27 and nickel 0-54 per cent. Small specimens from the First and Third 

 Egyptian dynasties from the Ashmolean Museum yielded only traces of tin and nickel. 



Twenty specimens were received from Sir Aurel Stein, mostly from Makran. 

 These were of very variable composition, the tin ranging from to 27 per cent., and 

 nickel being absent or only present in traces except in one copper specimen, which 

 contained no less than 1-77 per cent. 



Among other objects some small rings from Secunderabad, India, have been 

 analysed. One, weighing 0-042 gramme, consisted of pure gold, whilst another, 

 white in colour, was of electrum, containing 28 per cent, of gold. 



A copper slag from Chrysocamino, Crete, received from Mr. 0. Davies, was free 

 from nickel, and completely simOar to Roman copper slag from Sjain. 



A small double axe from Southern Thessaly was too thin to be drilled for analysis 

 without spoiling it, so a spectrographic analysis was made by Mr. D. M. Smith, by 

 the kindness of Mr. Twyman, of Messrs. Adam Hilger, and of the Non-ferrous Metals 

 Research Association. The results showed : — 



per cent. 

 0-1 



(The spectrographic method unfortunately breaks down for the tin analysis, this 

 metal being present in large proportion. It is hoped that this difficulty will be 

 overcome.) 



