DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3720#0117
100 DOMESTIC HABITS OF THE EGYPTIANS.
Egyptians and Sidonians, was afterwards carried to great
perfection by the Greeks.
Iron was also known in Egypt at a very remote period, and
the butchers sharpening their knives on a bar, which, from its
blue colour, was evidently steel, is represented on monuments
of the fourth dynasty,* as well as on those of later time. And if
bronze implements continued to be adopted long after iron was
known, this is no argument against the use of the latter, as we
know the Romans and others did the same for ages after they
had made arms and common utensils of iron. The case-
hardening of iron, by plunging it red-hot into water, is even
mentioned by Homer; and the more we enquire into, and
become acquainted with, the customs of people in the early
ages of the world, the more we are convinced that iron sup-
plied their simplest wants much in the same way at all times,
and that many secrets were known which we blindly suppose to
be of late date. There is great truth in the remark, " There
is no new thing under the sun," as there also is in the Arab
saying, "The world is very old;" and if Tubal Cain was, ages
before the time of Moses, " an instructor of every artificer
in brass and iron," the discovery of these will not date at a
very recent period. Nor is it sufficient to establish the fact of
an acquaintance with the use of iron—it is evident that its
properties as steel were not unknown; and those who deny
a nearer approach to it than case-hardening will find it difficult
to reconcile the mention of "a bow of steel," (Ps. xviii. 34),
and other evidence of its use, with the mere hardening of the
external surface of iron. Solomon, too, says, " iron sharpeneth
iron."
We are too apt to consider discoveries and inventions
new; and to under-rate the knowledge of man in old times.
* See P. A. of Ancient Egyptians, vol. i. p. 169; ii. p. 155.
Egyptians and Sidonians, was afterwards carried to great
perfection by the Greeks.
Iron was also known in Egypt at a very remote period, and
the butchers sharpening their knives on a bar, which, from its
blue colour, was evidently steel, is represented on monuments
of the fourth dynasty,* as well as on those of later time. And if
bronze implements continued to be adopted long after iron was
known, this is no argument against the use of the latter, as we
know the Romans and others did the same for ages after they
had made arms and common utensils of iron. The case-
hardening of iron, by plunging it red-hot into water, is even
mentioned by Homer; and the more we enquire into, and
become acquainted with, the customs of people in the early
ages of the world, the more we are convinced that iron sup-
plied their simplest wants much in the same way at all times,
and that many secrets were known which we blindly suppose to
be of late date. There is great truth in the remark, " There
is no new thing under the sun," as there also is in the Arab
saying, "The world is very old;" and if Tubal Cain was, ages
before the time of Moses, " an instructor of every artificer
in brass and iron," the discovery of these will not date at a
very recent period. Nor is it sufficient to establish the fact of
an acquaintance with the use of iron—it is evident that its
properties as steel were not unknown; and those who deny
a nearer approach to it than case-hardening will find it difficult
to reconcile the mention of "a bow of steel," (Ps. xviii. 34),
and other evidence of its use, with the mere hardening of the
external surface of iron. Solomon, too, says, " iron sharpeneth
iron."
We are too apt to consider discoveries and inventions
new; and to under-rate the knowledge of man in old times.
* See P. A. of Ancient Egyptians, vol. i. p. 169; ii. p. 155.