, but the phonetic value or pronunciation has not yet been determined. ‘It must have been in use 2000 b.c.,’ and it is found in inscriptions of all ages. The word is supposed to belong to the ancient Turanian or Proto-Babylonian race (Akkadian[356] or Sumirian) that held the river-plains, and it has been grafted into the more recent Assyrian language. In the inscriptions, each god has his sign, and the symbol above given, accompanies, as his attribute, one of the deities of war and hunting: thus it is a parallel to that found in the cartouche of the Egyptian ‘Iron King.’
Canon Rawlinson,[357] on the other hand, assigns to the symbol the phonetic value of Hurud, which thus became the Chaldæan equivalent for ‘iron.’ In concert with his distinguished brother, he came to the conclusion: ‘There are two signs for metals in Assyria, with respect to which there is a doubt which is iron and which is brass (or bronze rather). These are
and
. Sir Henry Rawlinson, on the whole, inclines to regard the first as bronze and the second as iron, although the former is nowhere rendered phonetically. The latter is rendered in a syllabary as equivalent to Hurud in Akkadian and Eru in Assyrian. Mr. George Smith reverses the meanings of the two signs. The point is a very doubtful one.’
After the decay of the Proto-Babylonian or Chaldæan empire (b.c. 2300–1500), when the seat of Interamnian rule moved to the Tigris-Euphrates basin, and the three Assyrian periods flourished (b.c. 1500–555),[358] iron was largely used. It was produced, according to Layard (loc. cit.) in the Tiyari mountains, and it is still found in quantities on the slopes, three or four days’ journey from Mosul. The north-western palace of Nimrúd (Kalah) showed, amongst the rubbish-heaps, much rusty iron and a perfect helmet like that represented in the bas-reliefs. There were Swords and daggers, shields and shield-handles, rods, and the points of spears and arrows, which fell to pieces on exposure. Amongst the few specimens preserved were the head of a trident-like weapon, some Sword-handles, a large blunt spear-pile, the point of a pick, several objects resembling the heads of sledge-hammers, and a double-handed saw of iron or steel (?), about three feet eight inches long by four inches and five-eighths broad, for cross-cutting timber. The British Museum owns a fine collection of Assyrian sheet or plate iron-work; pieces of unfinished forgings; a rude triangular lump through which a round hole has been driven (by a heated punch?); several cylindrical bars, straight and curved; wall-cramps, nails, and door-hinges; a ladle; rings of sizes (one being three inches in diameter); a signet-ring containing a silver bezel or seal; and, lastly, a portion of what seems to have been a double-sided comb. In much later days the Assyrians of Xerxes’ army carried, according to Herodotus, shields, spears, daggers, and wooden clubs spiked with iron.
The Greeks learned their metallurgy, as they did all their arts, from Egypt; and, following in the footsteps of the Phœnicians, diffused them throughout the Western World. In Theseus’ time, according to Wilkinson—that is, b.c. 1235—‘iron is conjectured not to have been known, as he was found buried with a brass (copper, bronze?) Sword and spear.’ They did not use iron weapons, and probably had no iron during their first foreign campaign—the Trojan war. The Parian (Arundelian) Chronicle (dating its notices from Cecrops, b.c. 1582) and the Rhodian myths refer to a conflagration in the Cretan mountains which taught metallurgy to the Idæan Daktyls (Δάκτυλοι Ἰδαῖοι):[359] this would, however, be a comparatively late date when we regard Egypt.[360]
With respect to the metal in the Hissarlik remains, Dr. Schliemann remarks (i. 31): ‘The only objects of iron which I found were a key of curious shape and a few arrows and nails close to the surface.’ It is no proof that it was used because Homer some centuries afterwards spoke of the κύανος (cyanus), steel tempered blue, a word which even in antiquity was translated by χάλυψ (chalybs, steel). The explorer remarks: ‘Articles of steel may have existed: I believe positively that they did exist; but they have vanished without leaving a trace of their existence; for, as we know, iron and steel become decomposed much more readily than copper.’ Yet, so contradictory is the whole book, and so uncertain are its conclusions, we find,[361] ‘No. 4. Drillings of one of the Trojan sling-bullets, externally covered with verdigris, and internally the colour of iron’; while the assay shows that it consisted chiefly of copper and sulphur. Among the contemporary (?) finds of Mycenæ, which not a few authorities have pronounced to be Byzantine, and another observer Keltic,[362] Dr. Schliemann met with iron in the shape of knives and keys; but he holds these articles to be of comparatively late date, not older than the fifth century b.c.[363] At that time iron must have been general throughout Greece. In the fourth century, Aristotle (‘Meteorologica’) treats at length upon iron and its modifications. One passage runs: ‘Wrought iron may be so cast as to be made liquid and to reharden; and thus it is they are wont to make steel (τὸ στόμωμα); for the scoria of iron subsides and is purged off by the bottom, and when it is often defæcated and cleansed, this is steel. But this they do not often, because of the great waste, and because it loses much weight in refining; but iron is so much the more excellent the more recrement it has.’ Daimachus, Aristotle’s contemporary, says of steels (τῶν στομωμάτων), ‘There is the Chalybdic,[364] the Synopic, the Lydian, and the Lacedæmonian. The Chalybdic is best for carpenters’ tools; the Lacedæmonian for files, drills, gravers, and stone-chisels; the Lydian also is suited for files, and for knives, razors, and rasps.’ Avicenna (Abu Ali Siná), in his fifth book, ‘De Anima,’ according to Roger Bacon, has three species of the metal: (1) Iron, good for hammers and anvils, but not for cutting tools; (2) Steel,[365] which is purer and has more heat in it; it is therefore less malleable, but better able to take an edge; and (3) Andena, ductile and malleable under a low degree of heat, and intermediate between iron and steel. Apparently the latter is the Hindiah or Hindiyáneh, the Ferrum Indicum and the Ondanique of Marco Polo (i. 17).
ROMAN IRON.