SOME CHEMICAL APPARATUS OF ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA1 MARTIN LEVEY Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania
A~CIENT chemical technology ~ o u l dbchetter under- merous le :ical unknowns in Sumerian aud Akkadian. It stood if we had a knowledge of the equipment employed is known, however, that tamarisk and huluppu woods in the early Mesopota- were commonly used for the construction of containers mian chemical industries. and common utensils. This paper will describe Very ancient vessels which were used for storage or in some of this apparatus heating processes were often round-bottomed just as in order to facilitate more they were in later Greek and Arabic times. Representaccurate study of the ative pots are shown in Figures 1%and 2.3 chemical processes which The most important find in recent years for the hiswere in use in those tory of chemical apparatus has been in the excavations times. This ancient at Tepe Gawra in northeast Mesopotamia, approxichemical apparatus will mately fifteen miles from present-day Mosul, Iraq. be compared, where Here vessels have been unearthed which show evidence necessary, with the much of having been used in heating processes and could very later and better known well have been utilized for the specialized purposes of Alexandrian and Arabic extraction, sublimation, and distillation. One type of equipment. Among the pot has a large trough formed by its two brims. In its Figure 1. P~ehistoris See1 Imitems to be discussed are inner lip there are drainage holes leading back to the inpresrion of Two Workem Stirring in a vessel vessels for liquids, ap- side of the container. This design would be admirable paratus for sublimation, for extraction of botanical or zoological materials. distillation, and extraction, mortars and pestles, mills, A further development of this specialized type of apstrainers, filters, crucibles, drip bottles, and separatory paratus is that shown in Figure 3.4 This vessel strongly apparatus. resembles, in its important details, apparatus used in Alexandrian and Arabic sublimation techniques. (See VESSEL TYPES Figure 4.5) I t would also have been useful in distillaAmong the types of vessel may be included contaiu- tion of low-boiling substances such as some essential oils, ers for both st,orageand heating as well as those adapted and particularly so in the derivation of volatile substanfrom them for more specialized purposes such as extrac- ces such as perfumes. The vessel in Figure 3 was retion, sublimation, and distillation. cently put together from its fragments by the author. Early vessels in Mesopotamia were almost all of clay, It was found in Level X I of Tepe Gawra which would while those of stone or wood were in use a t the same time. date it about 3500 B.C. It has a volume of 37.3 liters, Scores of names of different types of vessel have been whereas the channel in which a distillate or sublimate noted in the tablet literature. Their exact construction would he collected has a capacity of 2.1 liters. I n acor use has not as yet been determined owing to the nu- tual practice only one-half to one-third of the vessel would he filled, so that the trough capacity would comPresented before the Division of History of Chemistry at the 126th Meeting of the American Chemical Society, New York, pare favorably with that of the volume of material used for sublimation or distillation. .4 large number of very September, 1954. short, horizontal scratch marks are visible in the channel Figures 1 and 6 and their descriptions are in TOBLER, A. J., "Excavations a t Tepe Gawra," University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1950, Vol. 2. VON DEE OSTEN,H. H., "Ancient Oriental Seals in the Collection of Mr. Edward T. Newell," Oriental Institute PublicationsXXII, Chicago, 1934. Figures 3 and 9 are from originals in the University Museum, Universitv of Pennsvlvmia. BEETALOT, M:, "L& Cbirnie au Moyen Age," Vol. I, pp. 149-50, after MS Latin 6514 in the Bib. Nat.
APRIL, I955
of the vessel. These appezr to have becn made by a spatula or some thin scraping instrument. The round-bottomed vessels were supported on shallow circular rings like those in use today. These objects of clay are to be found throughout the entire history of chemical technology. Where used in a manufacturing establishment the bases were plain, but when employed in ritual use or in a wealthy home, they were elaborately decorated.' Often the stand was pierced with a number of air holes, indicating that it was used both as a support and hearth for gentle-heating purposes. The round-bottomed vessels may also have been suspended over the fire, as is evidenced by holes near the upper edgc of a Tepe Gawra vessel.' Metal hooks would then be used to hold the pot over the fire. Figul.. 4
MILLS AND MORTARS
The ancient mortar ("NA)8and pestle (amittu) were fashioned in the form we know today. In Tepe Gawra some excellent examples have been found. For the grinding of ores and glass these are almost always made of stone. Also made of stone were the mills which were manufactured for a specific duty. In the first millenium B.C. two principal types of mill were used-some worked by hand and others turned by beast^.^ The common hand mill consisted simply of a round flat stone above another flat stone slightly larger in dii~meter.'~The upper millstone" ("narkabu) is worked by placing a stick in a ver'See ANDRAE,WALTER,"Die Archaischen Isehtzr-Tempel in Assur," Leipaig, 1922, plate 19, No.45. LOC. cit., Plate CXXXVII, Fig. 282. TOBLER, 'THOMPSON. R. C.. "Asswim Medical Tnts." Oxford University Prcss, oxford, i923.6.41. The superscript a stands for oban, the determinative for stone. See GLGECK, N., "Explora.tions in Eastern Palestine," Annual oi the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 15, New Haven, 1935, p. 9. lo DALMAN, G. H., '*Arbietund Sitte in Palistina," Schriften des Doutschen Palistina-Instituts, 111, Giitersloh, 1933. '' Cuneiform texts in the British Museum, IV, 30, 4a.
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tical slot near the outer circumference of the unDer stone and turning it about on the lower one. This is still the practice of present-day Arabs. There are a number of words in Akkadian and Sumerian which seem to denote different states of comminution ( t a i t i , silcite, pasate, ZID,etc.). These different states were obtained partly by using millstones of varying hardness, such as basalt, sandstone, and granite.
MISCELLRNEOUS EQUIPMENT
Earthenware strainers were well known in ancient times in the Near East. An example from Nuzila is shown in Figure 5.. A colander for larger particles is depicted in Figure 6. For use as a filter the strainer was probably coveredwith wool or hair. This was the most common practice in Alexandrian and Arabic times. Filtration is mentioned in the earliest medical literature known, a text in Sumerian of about 2200 Figures 5 and 7 are from STARR, RICHARD F. S., "Nusi," Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1937, Val.
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1 3 LEYEY, MARTIN, "Ancient Chemical Technology in a Sumerian Pharmacological Tablet," J. CKEM.E~nc.,32, 11 (1955).
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
Apparatus for the separation of nonmiscible layers of liquids is shown in Figure 9. I n later times this was referred to as a s e p a ~ a t o r i u m . ~This ~ was probably the type of apparatus used to separate the aqueous layer from the oil layer in the manufacture of perfumes. Only a small part of the greatly diversified equipment of the ancient Mesopotamian chemical technologists has heen mentioned. The literature clearly shows that the Mesopotamians were also acqnainted with the balance and wights, spatulas, stirrers, molds, furnaces yielding a fairly high temperature, and various other important apparatus. WOMEN IN ANCIENT CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY
A very simple method of filtration which was known to the ancients is the use of a porous, unglazed clay vessel- to:.cantain the sohtion to be filtered. The vessel is then placed within a second one. The latter vessel would, of course, be glazed in order to retain the filtrate which seeps t,hrough the walls of the inner container after some time. Today in the Near East, where water is stored in eart,hen jars, the small amount of water which seeps through the pores of the jar and then evaporates keeps t,he remaining water cool. Crucibles were known in Mesopotamia and were made mainly of fired clay. A metal crucible from Nuzi is shown in Figure 7. This is no different in design from our modern crucibles. Drip bottles have been unearthed a t Nuzi (Figure 8). These bottles have a characterist,ic spout with an opening of very small diameter placed very low on the body. This type of bot,tle would thus be "suitable for the administration or mixing of pharmaceutical preparations." These medicinals mere compounded by the slow admixture of one substance mith another, particularly when the final product was to be some kind of colloidal mixturr.
Figure 8
A question arises as to the possible origin of chemical apparatus, and its earliest users. I n view of the fact that most of the equipment mentioned in this paper may be construed as having come either from an ancient kitchen or as having evolved from cookroom utensils, it is certain that women had an important place in early chemistry. I t has already been pointed out that the earliest chemists (of 1200 B.c.) xvhose names we know were two 11-omen. Women were active in various branches of chemical technology until Alexandrian times when they achieved important. positions in alchemy. I4 See FERCHL, F., AND A. SBSSENGUTH, " A Pictorial History of Chemistry," Wm. Heinemann, London, 1939, Plate 95, No. 40.
Figure 9
APRIL, 1955 CONCLUSIONS The knowledge of the ancient Mesopotamians, as seen from the nature of their apparatus, was very extensive in chemical technology. This is corroborated by the known literature, particularly the glass, perfumery, and medical texts. The fine clay and metal artifacts of the ancient civilizations of this area tend to lend weight to this conclusion. From the apparatus alone we may determine that the ancient Mesopotamian knew the es-
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sence of the arts of sublimation, extraction, and possibly distillation. Filtration and specialized methods of grinding were also extensively practiced. Separation of nonmiscible liquids was carried out either by decantation, as in the oldest Sumerian medical text, or by the use of a vessel with a spout near its base. The earliest chemical apparatus was developed, according to the best available evidence, to a large extent by women, from cookroom utensils.
