Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/109

 Pottery. 9 1 ralogists " cassiteris," on account of its fibrous texture. 1 It is very dense, and bears unmistakable traces of torréfaction. The native smelter knew not how to separate alloys from the ore, although practice had taught him that, by adding a small quantity of zinc to pure copper and passing it through the furnace, bronze would be obtained. The contemplation of native bronzes enables us to follow the methods employed by these early artificers in working metals, an industry in which, albeit tentative and imperfect, they seem to have been pretty successful. The lead they used for fixing and soldering was of a coarse kind met with in volcanic districts, and neither refined nor cupelled, 2 whilst the alloy in their bronzes, besides zinc, was found to contain a certain quantity of iron and lead. On the other hand, the copper of laminae used as binding was perfectly pure ; a result which cannot be ascribed to the natives, since they were unacquainted with the processes for separating or compounding metals. Similar laminae were probably imported from Phoenicia. Nor were they more advanced in the art of soldering ; for at Inter-Rogas, and even at Forraxi, of more recent date, the usual mode for joining copper utensils was by riveting, whilst in their bronze statuettes they seem to have fired the particular spots both in the figure and accessories, which were to be brought in contact with each other in order to obtain the end desired. 3 Lead and copper cakes, scoriae, and rubbish, which are sure to accumulate on sites where metal works have been extensively and long carried on, have as a rule, been found about nûraghs ; 4 but statuettes, metal implements, and utensils were naturally uncovered in their close proximity or within their ruins. 5 § 6. — Potteiy. With the natives of Sardinia the clay industry of the potter and modeller appears not to have progressed beyond its first beginnings. The few terra-cotta figures dug up at Teti are so 1 M. Nissardi was the first who detected cassiterion in the Forraxi scoriae, subse- quently recognized by M. Gouin in the Teti and other repositories. 2 Similar lead is from poor ores, with about 45 to 47 grs. of silver to every 100 kilos of metal. 3 Pais, Bollettino, p. 128, No. 93, 1884. 4 Ibid. pp. 148, 149, Nos. 166, 167, 1884; La Sardaigne, etc., p. 122. 6 La Marmora, Voyage en Sardaigne, torn. ii. p. 156; and Pais, ut supra.