Thebes and Memphis are so ancient that history has preserved no record of their founding. Yet in the tombs of these long-decayed cities are found tools and other articles of iron, some of which may be seen among the treasures of the New York Historical Society. An ancient inscription at Harnak tells us that Thothmes I., who reigned in the eighteenth dynasty (probably 1500 B.C.), received from his chiefs and vassal kings, 'bars of wrought metal and vessels of copper and of bronze and of iron,' and from near Memphis he received lead, iron, wine and wrought metal. Iron was so highly prized that it was considered a desirable article of plunder, and the soldiers of this same monarch, on their return from fighting Chadasha, brought 'iron of the mountains, 40 cubes.' An iron sickle was found beneath one of the sphynxes at Harnak, but it may have been placed there not more than 600 years B.C. When the great obelisk that now stands in Central Park, New York, was taken from its original position on the banks of the Nile, a piece of very pure iron was found beneath it. 'Pieces of iron tools have been found at various places, bedded in masonry of very ancient date' (E). In the twenty-fifth dynasty iron was used for the door frames of the temple of Ptah. Very few of the iron relics found are well enough preserved to show the character of the workmanship, but they do show that the art of tempering iron was known at a very early date.
The known sources of Egyptian iron include the desert region of the south between the Nile and the Red Sea, and the Sinai peninsula. At Hamami in the desert there are the workings of an ancient iron mine from which hematite was taken, but no evidences of smelting have been reported from this locality. The mines of the Sinai region must have been an important source of this metal as well as of copper. In 1873 ruins of extensive iron works of great antiquity, but of undoubted Egyptian origin, were discovered near the Wells of Moses, and it is possible that ancient Arabia learned the metallurgy of iron from the Egyptians. There is also reason to believe that iron was imported from Chaldea, Phoenicia, Babylonia and Assyria.
Of the metallurgical processes used in the treatment of iron ores little is known. Oxides or ochers of iron were used for the yellow, brown and red pigments so commonly used in Egyptian art. Some of the iron articles found are tools of various kinds, weapons, bracelets, keys, wire, door-frames, fish-hooks, etc.
The inscriptions make but few, if any, references to tin, and comparatively few articles made of that metal have been found. For these reasons, it is held by some writers that the ancient peoples, the Egyptians included, did not understand the separation of the metal from its ores. But the fact that plates of pure tin have been found in considerable number in the tombs is an answer to those who hold this view. These plates were shaped and used to cover the incision made in the
