The fact that in the Greek[1] language the words χαλκεύς and χαλκεύειν remained in use as significant of working in iron affords a very strong, if not an irrefragable argument as to bronze having been the earlier metal known to that people. In the same way the continuance in use of bronze cutting implements in certain religious rites—as was also the case with some stone implements which I shall subsequently mention—affords evidence of their comparative antiquity. The Tuscans[2] at the foundation of a city ploughed the pomærium with a bronze plough-share, the priests of the Sabines cut their hair with bronze knives, and the Chief Priest of Jupiter at Rome used shears of the same metal for that purpose. In the same manner Medea has attributed to her both by Sophocles and Ovid[3] a bronze sickle when gathering her magic herbs, and Elissa is represented by Virgil as using a similar instrument for the same purpose. Altogether, if history is to count for anything, there can be no doubt that in Greece and Italy, the earliest civilized countries of Europe, the use of bronze preceded that of iron, and therefore that there was in each case a Bronze Age of greater or less duration preceding the Iron Age.
It seems probable that the first iron used was meteoric, and such may have been that "self-fused" mass which formed one of the prizes at the funeral games of Patroclus,[4] and was so large that it would suffice its possessor for all purposes during five years. Even the Greek word for iron (σίδηρος) may not improbably be connected with the meteoric origin of the first known form of the metal. Its affinity with ἀστήρ, often used for a shooting star or meteor, with the Latin "sidera" and our own "star" is evident.
Professor Lauth,[5] moreover, interprets the Coptic word for iron, ΒΕΝΙΠε, as "the stone of heaven" (Stein des Himmels) which implies that in Egypt also its meteoric origin was acknowledged.
Among the Eskimos[6] of modern times meteoric iron has been employed for making knives. Where an excess of nickel is present, the meteoric iron cannot well be forged,[7] but Dana seems to be right in saying, as a general rule it is perfectly malleable.
Some, however, are of opinion that during the time that bronze was employed for cutting instruments, iron was also in use for
- ↑ Χαλκεύειν δὲ και τὸ σιδηρεύειν ἔλεγον, και χαλκεάς τοὺς τὸν σιδηρον ἐργαζομένους, Jul. Pollux, "Onomasticon," lib. vii. cap. 24.
- ↑ Macrobius, "Saturnal.," v. 19. Rhodiginus, "Antiq. Lect.," xix. c. 10.
- ↑ Met., lib. vii. 228.
- ↑ Homer, Il., xxiii. 826.
- ↑ Zeitsch. f. Ægypt. Sprache, &c. 1870, p. 114.
- ↑ Cong. Préh. Bruxelles, 1872, p. 242.
- ↑ See a valuable paper by Dr. L. Beck, Arch. f. Anth., vol. xii. (1880) p. 293.
