METAL WORK
Here we shall deal with the useful metals, apart from the ornamental
work of jewellery previously described. Copper was worked from the
beginning of the prehistoric civilisation. In one of the earliest
graves a little copper pin was found, used to fasten over the shoulders
the goat-skin, which was worn before the weaving of linen. Not long
after, a small chisel appears, then an adze and harpoon, then needles,
and larger sizes of tools come at the close of the prehistoric age.
All of this copper was shaped by hammering. Polished stone hammers
were used, and the work was so exquisitely regular that a polished
surface still remains on an adze, which shows no trace of the method
of manufacture; certainly it was not ground. The mode of hammering is
shown in some early historical sculptures; a stone hammer was held in
the palm of the right hand, which was swung overhead, and brought down
on the metal. How such work could be done without hurting the hand by
concussion is not clear to us. It is strange that down to Greek times
the Egyptians never used a long handle to a hammer.
[Illustration]
In the beginning of the kingdom, copper ewers and basins were made;
these are known from the sculpture of Narmer, and examples are found
in the royal tombs. They were skilfully hammered out, with cast spouts
inserted. The main example of early copper-work is the life-size statue
of King Pepy, and the smaller figure of his son (fig. 110). The trunk
and limbs are of hammered copper, riveted together; the face, hands,
and feet are cast doubtless by _cire perdue_. The ease and truth of
the whole figure shows that there must have been long practice in the
artistic working of copper; yet no traces of such figures are found
earlier, nor for over a thousand years later, and we may thus realise
how scattered are the points we have, in the view of the art as a whole.
The IXth dynasty has left a coarse example of cast copper tooled with a
graver, the brazier of Khety, now in Paris. Of the XIIth dynasty there
is not much copper work, except for tools. The moulds for casting tools
were found at Kahun. They were open moulds, cut out of a thick piece
of pottery, and lined smooth with fine clay and ash.
Down to this age copper was used with only small amounts of hardening
mixture; after this, bronze of copper and tin came into general use.
The earlier copper of the Ist dynasty usually contains one per cent.
of bismuth, and later than that one or two per cent. of arsenic, and
is “underpoled,” in modern terms, that is, a good deal of unreduced
oxide of copper is left in the metal. Both of these mixtures harden it;
and by strong hammering it is made still harder. Copper so treated at
present can be made as hard as mild steel. Thus the metal was fit for
the wood-cutting tools, and for the chisels used for cutting limestone.
The harder stones were worked with emery.[1]
[1] The earlier source of copper was Sinai, where there yet
remain thousands of tons of copper slag in the Wady Nasb. In
the XVIIIth dynasty and onwards, Cyprus--the Kupros island of
copper--came into regular connection with Egypt, and probably
supplied most of the metal.
[Illustration: METAL STATUARY
110. Merenra (VIth dynasty)
111, 112. Takushet (XXVth dynasty)]
Bronze has been found in one case as far back as the IIIrd dynasty,
but this was only a chance alloy. It began to be regularly used in the
XVIIIth dynasty, 1600 B.C.; and the source of the tin for it is a point
of interest in early trade. Cornwall and the Malay States are the only
modern sources of importance; but probably other surface sources have
been exhausted, as in the case of gold deposits. Now bronze is found in
Central Europe about as early as in Egypt, and it is unlikely to have
been imported there from Egypt, or to have been traded there as soon as
it would be to a great state like Egypt. The presumption would be that
it originated about Central Europe. As a district in Saxony is known
as Zinnwald, and crystallised oxide of tin is still brought from there
and from Bohemia, it is very likely that there may have been stream tin
deposits capable of supplying Europe and Egypt.
[Illustration: METAL VASES
113. Bronze pouring vase
114. Bronze fluted vase
115. Silver anti-splash bowl]
In the XVIIIth dynasty bronze vessels were wrought very skilfully by
hammer-work. The flask (fig. 113) for washing the sandals of Amen,
inscribed with the owner’s name and titles, is 9 inches high and has a
body 4 inches across; it has been hammered on anvils introduced through
the neck, which is only 1¼ inches wide. By the weight of it (7 ounces)
it cannot average more than ⅟₄₀th inch in thickness. A general mode of
stiffening the thin metal vases was by fluting the surface (fig. 114),
a method also used in prehistoric Greece.
The casting of bronze was generally done by the _cire perdue_ method.
A core of blackened sand is usually found in the casting. This was
probably sand mixed with a little organic matter; as it is never
reddened, probably no clay or mud was used. Over the core the wax was
modelled, and the traces of the modelling tool can be seen clearly on
unfinished bronzes. On an ibis there was a rolled pellet of wax put
between the beak and the breast, so as to induce the flow of the metal
along the beak; this would be easily cut away in finishing. An example
of a kneeling figure shows the legs completely modelled before putting
the pleated dress over them, and then the whole was cast. How the core
was fixed within the outer mould is a difficult question. On the many
unfinished bronzes that I have examined I have never found a definite
connection above the base, but only casual blowholes. Yet the metal was
often run as thin as ⅟₅₀th so that a shift of the core by as little
as ⅟₁₀₀th inch would throw the casting out, and make a flaw. How the
core was retained so firmly in position against the flotation of the
melted metal is not clear. No metal bars were put through the core to
steady it, as Cellini did in his large castings. A system was used of
stiffening bronze-work by casting it over iron rods; by the free use of
iron, this must be of the Greek period. Solid bronze castings come into
use in Ptolemaic and Roman work.
A favourite decoration of copper-work in later times, from about
700 B.C., was by inlaying lines of gold or silver in it. This is a
common system in India now, where it is known as _Keft_ work; the
name suggests that it was introduced from Egypt, where Keft was the
starting-point of the Indian trade route from the Nile. One of the
finest examples of this is the statue in the Athens Museum (figs. 111,
112); another is the hawk-head and collar with the name of Aahmes II in
the British Museum. The lines were first chiselled or punched in the
copper, and then the gold was beaten into the grooves.
No instance of using soft solder to copper or bronze is known till
Roman times.
Lead is found in the prehistoric times in the form of small figures and
little objects; it was probably brought from Syria. It next appears
as a rather common metal in the XVIIIth dynasty, when net-sinkers
were generally made by bending a piece of sheet lead round the edge
lines of the net, much as at the present day. In the filling of bronze
weights it is found both in the XVIIIth and XXVIth dynasties. And an
alloy of copper and lead--now known as pot-metal--was commonly used for
statuettes in Greek and Roman times. In Coptic times pewter bowls and
ladles were made; the bowls are apparently formed by spinning.
Tin is first known in a piece of bronze rod from Medum, of the IIIrd
dynasty. But this was only a freak, and bronze did not come into use
till about 1600 B.C., probably introduced from Hungary, as we have
noticed. At about 1400 B.C. there is a finger-ring of pure tin, known
by its crackling when bent. The metal is, however, scarcely known
separate otherwise.
Antimony occurs in the form of beads about 800 B.C.; as it was familiar
to the Assyrians also, it may have been traded from them.
Iron working is an important subject in the history of culture, and the
appearances of this metal in Egypt are curiously sporadic. The notion,
often suggested, that it might rust away and disappear, is absurd;
nothing is more permanent and noticeable than iron rust. The early
examples are: (1) a piece of sheet iron said to be found between the
stones of Khufu’s pyramid; (2) a lump of iron found wrapped up with
copper axes of the VIth dynasty form, and placed at the corresponding
level in the foundations of the Abydos temples; this is absolutely
certain and not open to any doubt; (3) iron ferules said to be found in
the masonry of a pyramid at Dahshur; (4) an iron falchion said to be
found beneath the base of a statue of Ramessu II. The certainty about
the second example--which was found by trained workmen, levelled at
the time, and is stuck together with tools of known date--prevents our
needing to hesitate about accepting the less precise authentication of
the other examples.
Yet iron continued so scarce until about 800 B.C. that we find then
a thin iron knife with a handle of bronze cast on it as being the
cheaper metal. The explanation of this intermittent use of iron lies in
an observation of Professor Ridgeway’s, that all the sites of native
iron in the world are where carboniferous strata and ironstone have
been heated by eruptions of basalt, and thus produced iron by natural
reduction of the ore. Exactly this combination is found in Sinai.
Carboniferous sandstone has beds of pure black haematite with it,
and a thick flow of basalt has extended over the country. Probably,
therefore, occasional pockets of native iron were found there by the
Egyptians at long intervals, and thus the use of it was intermittent.
The artificial production of iron seems to have been known earliest
in Assyria; it probably arose among the Chalybes at the head of the
Euphrates, from whom the Greek name of the metal was derived. Large
quantities of iron and steel tools have been found in the Assyrian
ruins, but were neglected by excavators. A set of armourer’s tools was
found at Thebes with a copper helmet of Assyrian form, and therefore
probably left by the expedition under Asshur-bani-pal in 666 B.C.
These tools comprise flat chisels, mortise chisels, saws, a punch, a
rasp, a file, a twist scoop, and two centre-bits. The forms of most of
these tools have already attained to the modern types; but the file
is only slight and irregular, and the centre-bits are only fit for
hard wood. The edges of these tools are of steel, probably produced by
case-hardening the iron.
We next find iron tools brought in by the Greeks at Naukratis. Chisels,
flat and mortise, with both tang and socket handles, borers and
axe-heads, were all familiar to the Greek before the Egyptian adopted
them. One instance of an iron adze of Egyptian type is known, but
otherwise it is not till Coptic times that we find a free use of iron
for knives, chisels, flesh-hooks, hoes, pruning hooks, and other tools,
probably due to Roman influence. To go further in this subject would
lead into the general history of tools, which is beyond our scope here.