XVI.—The Early Metallurgy of Copper, Tin, and Iron in Europe, as illustrated by Ancient Remains, and the Primitive Processes surviving in Japan

W. Gowland Esq.

doi:10.1017/S0261340900004835

XVI.—The Early Metallurgy of Copper, Tin, and Iron in Europe, as illustrated by Ancient Remains, and the Primitive Processes surviving in Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012

W. Gowland Esq.

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As the rude and primitive processes by which metals were extracted from their ores and adapted to the uses of man in early times are fast disappearing, and will soon cease to be practised in the few regions of the world where they still survive, it has appeared to me to be advisable that some record should be preserved of them before they fall entirely into disuse and become forgotten.

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 56 , Issue 2 , 1899 , pp. 267 - 322

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900004835 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1899

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^{page 268 note a} Dr. Lamborn, in A Rudimentary Treatise on the Metallurgy of Silver and Lead (London, 1861), 132Google Scholar, says: “The hunter and settler in Missouri, in the United States, early learned to procure the lead necessary for making their shot and bullets by building a fire in the hollow of a fallen tree or in an old stump, smelting the pieces of galena which they picked up on the surface.” Another example is given by Dr. Layard, in Nineveh and its Remains (i. 224). He remarks: “In these mountains (Tiyari Mountains), particularly in the heights above Lizan and in the valley of Berwari, mines of iron, lead, copper, and other minerals abound. Both the Kurds and the Chaldeans make their own weapons and implements of agriculture, and cast bullets for their rifles, collecting the ores which are scattered on the declivities or brought down by the torrents.”

^{page 270 note a} The illustration is taken from Agricola, De Re Metallica (Basileæ, 1556), 80Google Scholar.

^{page 271 note a} Note on the Gogofau, or Ogofau, mine, near Pumpsant, Caermarthenshire, by Smyth, Warrington W.. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, i. 483Google Scholar. The illustration is taken from a woodcut in this paper.

^{page 271 note b} Borlase, W. C., Tin Mining in Spain Past and Present (London, 1897), 28.Google Scholar

^{page 274 note a} Wibel, Die Kultur des Bronze Zeit, 33 and 40; Much, Die Kupfer Zeit in Europa (Jena, 1893), 267.Google Scholar

^{page 276 note a} “The Dolmens and Burial Mounds in Japan,” Archaeologia, lv. 475Google Scholar.

^{page 279 note a} When sulphide ores, such as copper pyrites, &c. are treated, they are submitted to a preliminary roasting operation, by which most of the sulphur is removed before they are smelted. The smelting process is then conducted in the same manner as for oxidised ores, but as the melted product then consists partly of metallic copper and partly of copper sulphide (regulus), a blast of air is blown into it to burn out the sulphur, and convert the whole into metal, as shown in fig. 7.

^{page 281 note a} The moulds are of canvas, set in a large trough of hot water, and the copper is poured into them, in a full stream through the water.

^{page 283 note a} Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, xxvii. 23.

^{page 283 note b} Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, xxix. 239.

^{page 283 note c} Schliemaiin, Mycence and Tiryus, 376.

^{page 283 note d} Journal of the Chemical Society, xli. 143.

^{page 283 note e} British Museum.

^{page 285 note a} M. Much, Die Kupferzeit in Europa, 249 et seq.

^{page 287 note a} Pennant, A Tour in Wales (1784), 65. The locality for this cake is disputed by the Hon. Stanley, W. Owen (Archœological Journal, xxx. 62)Google Scholar, who states that it was found near Aberfau, Anglesea, in the neighbourhood of which place are also ancient mines.

^{page 288 note a} I am indebted to the courtesy of our Secretary, Mr. C. H. Read, Keeper of British and Mediæval Antiquities, for permission to photograph this cake of copper and also the objects represented in Figs. 13 and 14.

^{page 290 note a} Localities in which crucibles of this form have been found: Robenhausen (Lake Pfäffikon, Switzerland); Mannedorf (Lake Zurich); Niederwyl, near Frauenfeld (Switzerland); the Mondsee (Upper Austria); Laibach Moor (Carniola); Loch Mourne and Loch Dowalton (Ireland).

^{page 292 note a} Siret, Les premiers Ages du Métal dans le Sud-est de l'Espagne, pl. 27.

^{page 294 note a} Cassiterite, the oxide of tin, is practically the only ore of the metal.

^{page 297 note a} The illustration is taken from Agricola, op. cit. 350.

^{page 298 note a} Pryce, , Mineralogia Cornubiensis (London, 1778), 281.Google Scholar

^{page 298 note b} Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, vi. (1846), 43 et seq.

^{page 299 note a} H. Louis in Mineral Industry (New York), v. 545.

^{page 300 note a} Note on the Block of Tin dredged up in Falmouth Harbour. By Col. Sir James, Henry, R.E., Director of the Ordnance Survey. London, 1863.Google Scholar

^{page 300 note b} Mr. R. A. Gregg, curator of the Museum of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, Truro, kindly superintended the preparation of the photographs from which this figure is taken.

^{page 301 note a} The accompanying woodcut has been kindly lent by the Royal Archaeological Institute.

^{page 302 note a} Pryce, Mineralogia Oornubiensis (1778), 136. “The furnace itself for blowing the Tin is called the Castle on account of its strength, being of massive stones cramped together with Iron to endure the united force of fire and air. This fire is made with charcoal excited by two large bellows, which are worked by a water-wheel, the same as at the Iron forges. They are about eight feet long and two and a half wide at the broadest part. The fire place, or Castle, is about six feet perpendicular, two feet wide in the top part each way, and about fourteen inches in the bottom, all made of moorstone and clay, well cemented and cramped together. The pipe or nose of each bellows is fixed ten inches high from the bottom of the Castle in a large piece of wrought Iron, called the Hearth-Bye. The Tin and charcoal are laid in the castle, stratum super stratum, in such quantities as are thought proper; so that from eight to twelve hundredweight of Tin, by the consumption of eighteen to twenty-four sixty-gallon packs of charcoal, may be melted in a tide or twelve-hours' time. Those bellows are not only useful for igniting the charcoal, but they throw a steady and powerful air into the castle; which at the same time that it smelts the Tin, forces it out also through a hole at the bottom of the castle, about four inches high and one and a-half inches wide, into a moorstone trough six and a-half feet deep and one foot wide, called the float; whence it is laded into lesser troughs or molds.”

^{page 303 note a} Dr. Percy, , Metallurgy, Iron and Steel (London, 1864), 873.Google Scholar

^{page 304 note a} Ledebur, A., Manuel de la Métallurgie du Fer (Paris, 1895), 6.Google Scholar

^{page 304 note b} Dr. Beck, Ludwig, Die Geschichte des Eisens (Braunschweig, 1892), i. 593–596.Google Scholar

^{page 306 note a} Park, Mungo, Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa (London, 1799), 283–5.Google Scholar

^{page 308 note a} Perrot and Chipiez, Chaldea, ii. 311.

^{page 311 note a} This illustration has been kindly lent by Messrs. Murray.

^{page 312 note a} Himalayan Journals (London, 1854), ii. 310, quoted in Percy's Metallurgy, Iron and Steel,. 262–264.Google Scholar PubMed

^{page 312 note b} Russegger, , Reise in Ägypten, Nubien mid Ostsudan (Stuttgart, 1844), II. 2, p. 286et seq.Google Scholar

^{page 313 note a} L. Simonin, “De l'exploitation des mines et de la metallurgie en Toscana.” Annales des mines, T. xiv. 1859, p. 557, 565.

^{page 313 note b} For a description of the Corsican process, see Percy, Metallurgy, Iron and Steel, 315–319.

^{page 316 note a} Münichsdörfer, Der Hüttenberger Erzherg, 10 et seq.

^{page 316 note b} Dr. Wankel, H., Prähistorische Eisenschmelz- und Schmiedestätten (Wien, 1879), 29et seq. Quoted by Beck, op. cit. 628.Google Scholar

^{page 318 note a} Mittheilungen der Antiquarischen Gesellschaft von Zürich, 1871. “Notice sur les forges primitives dans le Jura,” par A. Quiquerez, p. 71 et seq.

^{page 319 note a} Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute (London, 1897), lii. 205. The illustration has been kindly lent by the Institute.Google Scholar PubMed

^{page 319 note b} Dr. Ludwig Beck, op. cit. i. 514 et seq.

^{page 320 note a} Dr. Ludwig Beck, op. cit. i. 520, 521, whence this and fig. 27 are borrowed.

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XVI.—The Early Metallurgy of Copper, Tin, and Iron in Europe, as illustrated by Ancient Remains, and the Primitive Processes surviving in Japan

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