CHEMICAL FURNACES OF ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA AND PALESTINE MARTIN LEVEY Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania
IN
ORDER t,o evaluate the capabilities and limitations of the ancient chemist, it is essential that we be arquainted with his methods of attaining the required heat and necessary temperatures for his chemical processes. That the ancient Mesopotamians and Palestinians attained a marked craftsmanship and extensive chemical t,eohnology is known from the artifacts of their civilization. The furnaces used hy these early chemists will he descrihed t o facilitate our understanding of their technological achievements. The Mesopotamians, in early times, displayed their respect for the efferts of fire by retaining a fire god in their mythology. I n the myth of Sivan, a Babylonian month, Negun was the fire god. With his assistance fire bricks vere made (1). The scribes desrrihed his name as meaning the fire god who consumes the offer-
Figure
1.
Mesopotamian Furnace of 1400 B.C.
ings, "Negun, he that burns by fire" ( 2 ) . The Javelin Star Sirius, which "glows like copper" was identified with Girra the fire god (Sumerian KA+NE) in connection with brick making (9). Other fire gods are mentioned in ceremonies of menologies with the lcinzinu, a brazier dedicated to these gods (4). An incantation text of a religious nat,ure preserves the names of two important Sumerian fire gods as BIL.GI and GIS-BAR. The ancient glass-manufacturing texts and the tahlets on perfumery are always rareful to denote the intensity of the fire to be maintained. I n a tablet on glass manufacture, the text reads ( 5 ) , "Fire is kindled, it may he a good fire, not smoky or a fierce fire, and it rises from the midst of the eyes (the hole openings above the grate). . . ." I n the manufarture o f glass and essential oils, the Mesopotamians usually kept the fornace fire going for from four t o ten days. Before opening disrussiou of the construction of ancient furnaces, it would he of value t o determine t,he t,ypes of fuel which mere available t o the early chemist,. As described in the seventh-cbentury B.C. glass texts, decorticated styrax wood or other gummy wood, willon., and perhaps mulberry wood irere used. The last of these mas cut in the hot month of Ab and kept under a hide covering (6, 7). The philological relationship is demonstrat,ed in the early Akkadian, where abu signifies firebrand, torch, firewood, xrhile a-iu-u may mean firewood, rush, fuel (8). For fuel in the 'Arahah of lower Palestine, in the early iron age (second millmiurn LC.), there mere probably the same supplies that exist t,oday. These consist of dried shrubs and hushes, a very good fuel for the limekilns of Palestine and Jordan (9). Some wood in the form of charcoal may, hen-ever, have beim imported into ancient Palestine from Edom proper. Archeologiral artifacts have failed t o verify the textual cvidence for the use of char
