The whole passage, though couched in poetic language, shows us that the processes of mining nearly 2500 years ago were not dissimilar to those practised in the time of Pliny, and even down to the present day, except in the use of machinery and of ΤΥ ΡΥ explosives.
We shall now describe some localities where mining operations were carried on, and con- sider them under the head of the minerals pro- duced.
Gold (27;).—This was one of the earliest metals discovered by man, as may be gathered from its occurrence in the sepulchres of the most ancient races, worked into ornaments. Mining for gold was carried on in many countries in ancient times by the Egyptians, Pheenicians, and Babylonians. In Upper t it was worked in the country of the Bisharéeh Arabs, and between Coptos and Kossayr (Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians, i. 232, iii. 227). The gold occurs in quartz-veins amongst the Archean rocks, from which it was extracted by breaking, grinding, and washing; criminals being employed and compelled to work under overseers taken from tribes speaking a different tongue. Gold was also worked by Ramses Π. at Akita (Wady Ollagi) by means of shafts, but the mines had to be abandoned owing to want of water (Brugsch, Egypt under the Pharaohs, 287). The gold which was so abundant in Palestine in the reign of Solomon (1 Καὶ 10) came from various countries—Spain, India, Arabia, and prob- ably South Africa. The Pheenicians, according to Herodotus (vi. 47), worked mines for gold in the island of Thasos, but Spain was the country which
ielded to these navigators the mostabundant wealth in metals, Gold, according to Pliny, was found in the bed of the Tagus, and there were mines of it in Galicia, Asturias, and elsewhere (NH xxxiii. 4). The produce of Asturias formed the major part. The process of mining gold from shafts and galleries, as well as by washing the alluvia from the bed of streams, is described in what must be considered highly exaggerated language by Pliny (NH xxxiii. ch. 21); but in the auri sacra fames (Verg. Aen. iii. 57) human life was little accounted of, and both in Egypt and elsewhere the hardships and cruelties endured by those employed in mining must have been great indeed. The gold of Ophir may have come from India ; but it is not improb- able that some of the ancient workings visited by the late Mr. Theodore Bent in S. Africa may date
MINES, MINING
back to the time of Solomon (J. Th. Bent, ‘ Ruins of Mashonaland,’ Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1892, p. 543). See, also, art. GOLD.
Silver (422), which Pliny calls ‘ the next folly of mankind’ (after gold), was mined by means of shafts ‘sunk deep in the ground,’ and smelted in combi- nation with lead ore or galena (Pliny, NH xxxiii. 31). Most of our silver comes from argentiferous
alena. The finest ores were worked in Spain. n Upper Egypt silver mines were worked in the mountains bordering the Red Sea (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. i. 235). See, further, art. SILVER.
Copper (nvn3, brass [which see], which in Old Eng. means copper).—Copper mines were worked in very ancient times in Arabia Petreea. The earliest mining operations of which we have any record were those carried on by the Egyptian series of the 4th, 5th, and 12th Dynasties in the Sinaitic mountains. In the Wady Magharah and at Sarabit el-Khadim copper ore was extracted from veins in the ancient rocks by means of shafts, under the auspices of the early Pharaohs (Brugsch, Ancient Egypt, i. 65; Birch, Ancient Egypt, 64). It must have been this part of the Promised Land that is referred to in Dt 87:9, for in Palestine proper copper is unknown. The ore also occurs in the Wadis Nasb and Khalig (in the latter some- what extensively) in company with those of iron and manganese ; while the smelting of the ores was carried on in the Wady Nasb near to the springs, where extensive slag-heaps may still be seen (Bauerman, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. xxv.
7). Similar mines and slag-heaps occur in Wadis el-Marka and Sened, where a dyke rich in copper ore traverses syenite for a distance of nearly 2 miles (Holland, in Ord. Survey of Sinai, 224). The ore was extensively worked by the Pheni- cians in Cyprus, where, according to Pliny, it was first discovered, and from which the island derives its name.
Tin.—This metal, which, when used as an alloy of copper, produces bronze, was wrought in very early times in Egypt, as bronze implements have been discovered in Thebes. Tin (73) is mentioned in ΝᾺ 319 Ρ and also in Is 135; in the latter in a sense indicating its use as an alloy (cf. also Ezk 2918. 30 273, Zec 419), The word δεοὶ by Homer (JZ. xviii. 474 and 613), κασσίτερος, is the same as the Arabic kasdeer, probably derived from ancient Pheeni- cian. Certain it is that these mariners brought tin from the Cassiterides, which embraced the Scilly Isles and the coast of Cornwall (Wilkinson, Anceent Egyptians, vol. iii.). One of the most remarkable facts connected with the early races in Europe and Asia was the extensive use of weapons and implements of bronze; and Sir John Evans shows that the use of bronze preceded that of iron in Egypt (Ancient Bronze Implements, pp. 7, 8). See, further, under TIN.