Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/705

Rh right side of the corpse to remove the viscera preparatory to embalming. They were engraved with the symbolic eye-emblem of the sun-god Shu. But the principal use of tin was in the manufacture of the two alloys, bronze and solder, of which the former was many times the more important. Solder, the alloy of lead and tin, was very much used in the metal-worker's craft. The sources from which the Egyptians drew their supply of tin are not known. It is believed by some that the Phoenicians brought it from Spain and later from the shores of Britain. It has also been suggested that it may have been brought from the East Indies by very indirect channels of trade. Whatever may have been the source of supply, tin was used in large quantities by the ancient Egyptians.

Silver. Silver and gold were the precious metals of Egypt. In very early times silver was the rarer and more precious. This is probably due to the fact that it was not produced in Egypt or the neighboring countries. In later times when commerce developed and the products of all the earth began to come to the ports of the Nile and the Red Sea the two metals changed places in respect to value. The greater rarity of silver in the earlier dynasties is shown by its very limited use, as well as by the fact that in the old inscriptions it always stands before gold. Gold was lavished on the mummies and on the tomb decorations of the wealthy, but silver was seldom used in this way. In the temple decorations silver played but a small part, and in the ceremonies by which rank and title were bestowed upon faithful officers and court favorites, silver is rarely mentioned. The gifts to the king rarely include it, though copper and bronze are generally mentioned.

But about the time of the eighteenth dynasty the Phoenicians and Syrians brought much silver from Cilicia, and the island of Cyprus sent this metal to Egypt, as is shown by the Tell-el-Amarna letters. From this time the use of silver is much more common for many purposes than that of gold. King Kamses III. records the fact that during his reign of thirty-one years he gave to the temples, among other gifts: 1,015 kg. of gold, 2,994 kg. of silver, 940 kg. of black bronze and 13,060 kg. of bronze. Its use, likewise, in the arts became much more common, both alone and in the alloy usm or electron.

In the nineteenth dynasty, Bamses II. and Khita-sir, king of the Hittites, made a treaty for mutual protection and support. A silver tablet has been found on which is engraved the whole text of the treaty, and it is almost as wordy as similar documents of the present day.

The work of the silversmith was similar to that of the goldsmith, and vases of the Middle Empire (2130-1530) show more than average elegance of design and delicacy of workmanship, but the very elaborate work often found on objects of gold is rarely seen on those of silver. It is a remarkable fact that gilded silver is found.