XIV. The Composition of some Ancient Iron 

 Implements and a Bronze found at Thebes. 



By Arthur Harden, M.Sc, Ph.D. 



Read April 27th. Received May 1st, 1897. 



The iron implements in question were found by 

 Flinders Petrie, and are stated by him to date from 

 about 670 B.C., a period at which iron had not passed 

 into common use even among the Greeks. According 

 to their discoverer the forms of these tools are quite 

 unknown in Egyptian use, but were evolved by an iron- 

 using people. The implements are probably relics of 

 the Assyrian invasions (669-666 B.C.) Although many 

 specimens of iron more ancient than these are known, 

 so far as I am aware, no analyses of manufactured iron 

 dating from before the Christian Era have hitherto been 

 made. 



The collection of implements which is now in the 

 Owens College Museum includes several chisels, saws, 

 files, rasps, nails, and other small objects. The main 

 interest of the analytical examination was to ascertain 

 the amount of carbon present in the iron, along with 

 the several amounts of silicon, phosphorus, sulphur, and 



September 22nd, 1897. 



