346 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. ETC. 



work is at present carried out in the Metallurgical Department of the 

 National Physical Laboratory, under the direction of the Secretary. The 

 total amount paid to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research 

 since the 1936 Report is £94 17s. lod. Towards this contributions were 

 received of £10 from the Copper Development Association and of £10 

 from Miss Winifred Lamb. A generous gift of £100 from Sir Robert 

 Mond has now enabled this cost to be covered. 



The analyses made have included a series of fourteen copper specimens 

 from the Anatolian site of Kusura, submitted by Miss Lamb. The results 

 are published in Archceologia, 1937, (ii) 36, 1-64. Two contained tin, in 

 quantities of 2-8 and 1-2% respectively, a few having much smaller 

 quantities. The specimens from period A, however, contained arsenic in 

 appreciable quantities, up to 0-59%, whilst the specimens from the 

 later periods contained no more than traces of that element. Lead was 

 present in only one specimen : that containing the larger quantity of tin. 

 Three iron objects were found in the highest levels. 



Some copper objects found by Mr. Mackay at Chanha-Daro proved to 

 be free from tin, and to contain only minute quantities of arsenic and nickel, 

 but some of them contained sulphur. 



Ancient slags, collected in Persia towards Baluchistan by Dr. J. V. 

 Harrison, were examined, but none of them could be identified as being 

 derived from copper-smelting operations. 



An interesting series of Central Asian bronzes, including several of the 

 Minussinsk type, was submitted by Miss V. C. C. Collum. A preliminary 

 description of them has been published in the Journal of the Royal Central 

 Asian Society, 1938, 25, 22-23. These were of varying composition, 

 several being notable for their high content of lead. Miss Collum also 

 supplied a series of bronze axes from Brittany, the analyses of which will 

 be published shortly. The excavations which she had carried out for 

 Sir Robert Mond in Guernsey have also led to an investigation of early iron 

 objects, and several iron hammers of known Roman age have been obtained 

 from museums and examined microscopically. A good deal of information 

 about the structure of bloomery iron has now been collected. 



A very extensive series of copper and bronze fragments from Troy I-IX, 

 submitted by Prof. Blegen, is in course of examination. The series will be 

 most conveniently reported on when complete. It is, however, interesting 

 to note the marked differences between the chemical composition of objects 

 from the earlier and the later levels. 



Several specimens of electrum found by Sir Flinders Petrie at Tell Ajjul 

 in Palestine were also analysed. 



The Secretary has been in correspondence with a number of archaeologists 

 in other countries, who are now carrying out analyses of copper and bronze 

 from a great variety of sites, so that an extensive mass of material is being 

 accumulated. There are, however, many sites from which objects have 

 been described as copper or bronze from their general appearance only, and 

 detailed analyses are very desirable. There is an advantage in keeping the 

 Committee in being, although with a more general title, as a centre for such 

 information. 



