87
FEBRUARY. 1951
0
ANCIENT SYRIAN COPPERS AND BRONZES ROBERT J. BRAIDWOOD, JOSEPH E. BURKE, and NORMAN H. NACHTRIEB University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
C O P P E R or "hronze" (although not in the strict sense in which we now use the term) is traditionally considered to be the oldest metal known to man. The Greek Epics speak of times when "man used weapons of bronze and wrought with bronze; for black iron was not." Lucretius (ca. 9&55 B.c.) says: "The earliest weapons were the hands, nails, and teeth; then came stones and clubs. These were followed by iron and hronze, but bronze came first.. . . " The earliest
Figure 1.
The Near East
Shows certain important arohaeologioal sites in the earliest village stage (after 5000 s.c.),snd ernphasires the hilly flanks zone w l k h lsy l u s t above Breasted's -fertde crescent.''
"modern" archeological classification, published by C. J. Thomsen of the Royal Danish Museum in 1836, was essentially that of Lucretius: Thomsen called for "Ages of Stone, Bronze, and Iron" in that chronological order. In most parts of Eurasia, subsequent excavation has substantiated Thomsen's classification. It is not yet certain exactly where and when copper tools mere first made. There is enough certainty, however, for the assertion that the first use of copper was undoubtedly somewhere within the hilly flanks of the "fertile crescent" in the Near East (Figure 1). The date of its first appearance cannot be much later than ca. 5000 B.C. In our present state of lcnowledge, the earliest copper tools would appear to he those from the basal layers of the mound of Sialk in Iran.' By the time another thousand years had passed, simple copper tools and ornaments had made their appearance in Egypt (at Badari, near Tasa, see Figure I), in Northwest The Sialk examples consist of pins and twists (earrings ?) of copper "wirc," and of drills or reamers. They have not yet been given s. full-scale technological report, but see H. H. COGHLAN, "Some fresh aspects of the prehistoric metallurgy of copper," Ant.iquaries .Journal, 22 ( 1 9 4 2 ) . V. Gordon Childe's Huxley lecture, "Archaeological ages 8s technological stages," Journal Royal Anlhropolagical Instilule, 74 (1944) is a provocative account of the general archeological problems bonnected with early metallurgy.
88
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION ,.
Figure 2.
....
C O I I ~ ~ of ~ ~pins O ~~ ~ ~ chomisany ~ i ~ and . ~d ~ graphically
t ~
Syria, and at other Iranian sites (Bakun, Hissar, and Anau). The mineral sources of early copper are largely unknown, although it is certain that the mines of Cyprus were worked for native metal at a relatively early date. The present-day copper resources of the world give no clue to the ancient mines, ~ ~ h i ecould h scarcely be of current economic interest. Other questions concerning the early use of copper have not been definitely answered. If, as Coghlan believes (and as in the New World, with Keewanaw ore), the first implements were fashioned of native c ~ p p e rthen , ~ it is reasonable to ask how and where the knowledge of smelting arose. It would be interesting to know whether the reduction of ores and the fusibility of copper were simultaneous discoveries, or whether it mas common practice t o melt and cast native copper. The extent to which hot forging of metal was practiced would shed some light on the degree of knowledge possessed by the early metallurgists. A significant contribution would be the certain distinction between intentional alloys and natural alloys. Qualified answers to some of these and related problems may be sought in chemical and metallographic examinations of the artifacts. Data d this kind are very meager and come from scattered sources, however. The sampling difficulties are large and the degree of
acvirlr~ital~ n r i : r t i oof ~ ~metal wmposition ij hard to ns.;ess. I
