Bronze Egyptian

Shortland, A. (2006). Application of lead isotope analysis to a wide range of late bronze age Egyptian materials, Archaeometry 48, 657-669. 

Shortland, A., N. Rogers, and K. Eremin (2007), Trace element discriminants between Egyptian and Mesopotamian late Bronze Age glasses, ]. Archaeol. Sci. 34, 823-829. 

In his Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, A. Lucas states that, although tin ore has not been found in Egypt, the earliest known artifacts of this metal, apart from bronze, are a ring and a pilgrim bottle from Egyptian tombs of the eighteenth dynasty (1580 B.C. to 1350 B.C.) (65). 

BC Earliest known use of carbon is by the Egyptians. Charcoal was used to make bronze and as a smokeless fuel for home fires. 

Berthelot also found that the most ancient articles of Egyptian origin are of copper without addition of other metals. Bronzes of copper and tin he finds as early as the sixth dynasty. Indeed, in a weathered metal fragment from a tomb of the third dynasty, according to Masperot, he found a very considerable admixture of tin, the quantity being sufficient to serve as rather conclusive evidence... 

There has been much speculation as to the sources whence the ancient Egyptians obtained the tin for their bronzes. No nearby sources have been discovered. Geologic evidence is to the effect that tin occurred in Persia, and it may have been from this region that the earliest supplies came. It is also possible that sources of tinstone from farther south on the African continent may have been drawn upon, but any evidence to that effect is also lacking. 

Lead, called by the Greeks molybdos, by the Latins plumbum, by reason of the wide occurrence of its ores and the readiness of its reduction, was known at a very early period. It was used by the Babylonians in the form of thin plates for engraving inscriptions, and by the Egyptians and other early civilized peoples for a variety of purposes. We have already noted its use by the Egyptians as a constituent of bronzes, a use which Pliny also records in Roman times. The Egyptians called lead the mother of metals, an idea which may have arisen from the frequent... 

The applicability of iron to the making of weapons would depend upon the time at which its more or less perfect conversion into steel was effected, a period which though several centuries before our era, yet probably was not as early as when good bronze weapons were in use. By about 1300 B. C., however, steel seems to have been used by the Egyptians. 

Among the technologies in existence by ca 4000 bc, which included the manufacture of synthetic lapis lazuli, the development of the first true pottery kilns must rate as a significant achievement (1). For polychrome pottery to be successfully manufactured, it was essential to separate the fire (fuel) from the work (clay pottery). The excavations performed in the near east (Mesopotamia in antiquity) indicate that these early kilns were probably of beehive construction. Subsequent Egyptian pottery kilns of the period ca 3000 BC were the familiar chimney shape. With the smelting of copper in pit hearths predating by perhaps a millenium millennium the start of the Bronze Age at ca 3000 BC, another important advance was the invention of the bellows at ca 2000 BC. Bellows supply combustion air where it is needed and are used as a means of raising furnace temperature. 

Egyptians used gold, copper, iron and tin to make daggers, vases and mirrors. Both the Indians and Egyptians used brass and bronze. 

History.—Pure copper, or an alloy with tin in the form of bronze, appears to have been known for at least 7000 years. The metal was probably familiar to the Chaldeans before the year 5000 b.c.,3 and seems to have been worked by the Egyptians about the same period, since Egyptian copper tools supposed to date from about the year 4400 b.c. have been discovered. The copper mines of the Sinai Peninsula were extensively worked by the Egyptians about the year 3700 b.c.4... 

Berichte des IGB, Heft 6, Sonderheft I, 1998, IGB, Berlin, pp 111-117 Bartel HG (2000) Formal Concept Analysis and Chemometrics Chemical Composition of Ancient Egyptian Bronze artifacts. Match Commun Math Comput Chem 42 25-38... 

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