However this may be, it seems admitted on all hands that the use of iron in Egypt in early times was much restricted, probably from some religious motive. May not this have arisen from the first iron there known having been, as it appears to have been in some other countries, of meteoric origin? The Coptic name for iron, ⲂⲈⲚⲒⲠⲈ which has been interpreted by Professor Lauth[24] as “the Stone of Heaven,” strongly favours such a view. The resemblance of this term to ⲂⲀⲀ-Ⲛ-ⲠⲈ, the baa of heaven, or celestial iron, has also been pointed out by M. Chabas,[25] who, however, is inclined to consider that steel was so called on account of its reflecting the colour of the sky. If the iron in use among the early Egyptians were meteoric, and its celestial origin acknowledged, both its rarity and its restricted use would be accounted for. The term “bone of Typhon,” as applied to iron, is given by Plutarch on the authority of Manetho, who wrote in the days of the first Ptolemy. It appears to be used only in contrast to the name “bone of Horus,” which, according to the same author, was applied to the loadstone, and it seems difficult to admit any great antiquity for the appellation, or to connect it with a period when iron was at all rare, or its use restricted.
Although the use of iron in Egypt was at an early period comparatively unknown, that of bronze was most extensive. The weapons of war,[26] the tools for various trades, including those of the engraver and sculptor, were all made of that metal, which in its crude form served also as a kind of circulating medium. It appears to have been mainly imported from Asia, some of the principal sources of copper being in the peninsula of Sinai. One of the chief mines was situated at Sarbout-el-Khadem, where both turquoises and copper ore were extracted, and the latter smelted at Wady-Nash. The copper mines of Wady-Magarah are thought to have been worked as early as the second dynasty, upwards of 3000 years b.c.; and in connection with ancient Egyptian mining, it is worthwhile again to cite Agatharchides,[27] whose testimony I have already adduced in my “Ancient Stone Implements,” and who relates that in his time, circa b.c. 100, there were found buried in some ancient gold-mines in Upper Egypt the bronze chisels or wedges (λατομίδες χαλκᾶι) of the old miners, and who accounts for their being of that metal by the fact that when those mines were wrought, men were in no way acquainted with the use of iron.
In the seventh century b.c., however, iron must have been in general use in Egypt, for on the landing of the Carians and Ionians,[28] who were armed with bronze, an Egyptian, who had never before seen men armed with that metal, ran to Psammetichus to inform him that brazen men had risen from the sea and were wasting the country. As Psammetichus himself is described as wearing a brazen helmet, the arms mentioned would seem to have been offensive rather than defensive.
The source whence the tin, which formed a constituent part of the bronze, was derived, is much more uncertain. Indeed, to judge from M. Chabas’ silence, its name and hieroglyphic are unknown, though from some of the uses to which the metal designated by
was applied, it seems possible that it may have been tin.
On the whole, to judge from documentary evidence alone, the question as to the successive use of the different metals in Egypt seems to be excessively obscure, some of them being almost impossible to identify by name or representative sign. If, however, we turn to the actual relics of the past, we find bronze tools and weapons in abundance, while those of iron are extremely scarce, and are either of late date or at best of uncertain age. So strong, indeed, is the material evidence, that the late Mr. Crawfurd,[29] while disputing any general and universal sequence of iron to bronze, confesses that Ancient Egypt seems to offer a case in which a Bronze Age clearly preceded an Iron one, or at least in which cutting instruments of bronze preceded those of iron.
Among the Assyrians iron seems to have been in considerable use at an early date, and to have been exported from that country to Egypt, but knives and long chisels or hatchets of bronze were among the objects found at Tel Sifr, in Southern Babylonia. The earliest bronze image to which a date can be assigned appears to be that on which M. Oppert has read the name of Koudourmapouk, King of the Soumirs and Accads,[30] who, according to M. Lenormant, lived about 2100 b.c. Dr. S. Birch reads the name as Kudurmabug (about 2200 b.c.). Others in the British Museum are referred to Gudea, who reigned about 1700 b.c.
The mythology and literature of ancient Greece and Rome are so intimately connected, that in discussing the evidence afforded by classical writers it will be needless to separate them, but the testimony of both Greek and Latin authors may be taken indiscriminately, though, of course, the former afford the more ancient evidence. I have already cited much of this evidence in the Introductory Chapter of my book on Ancient Stone Implements, mainly with the view of showing the succession of bronze to stone; on the present occasion I have to re-adduce it, together with what corroborative testimony I am able to procure, in order to show that, along the northern shores of the Mediterranean, philology and history agree as to the priority of the use of bronze for cutting instruments to that of iron.