An Occurrence of Iron in the IV Dynasty

8/12/2019 An Occurrence of Iron in the IV Dynasty

1/6

THE JOURNAL OF

Egyptian Archaeology

V O L U M E 2 8

P U B L I S H E D B Y

THE EGYPT EXPLORATION SOCIETY2 H I N D E S T R E E T M A N C H E S T E R SQ U A R E L O N D O N W. 1

1942


2/6

C O N T E N T SPAGE

EDITORIAL FOREWORD i

T H E B AT T L E OF M E G I D D O R . O . Faulkner 2

A N O L D K I N G D O M L E T T E R C O N C E R N I N G THE C R I M E S OF C O U N T

SABNI Paul C. Smi the r ... 1 6

A N EGYPTI AN TEXT I N G R E E K CHARACTERS W . E . Crum 2 0

T H E M Y T H OF H O R U S AT E D F U I I A . M. Blackman and

H . W . Fa i rman ... 3 2

P . G I S S . 4 0 AND THE Constitutio Antoniniana H . I . Be l l 3 9

N U B I A N S I N T H E T O M B O F A M U N E D J E H From No tes by N . M.

D a v i e s ... ... 5 0

A BILINGUAL D E D I C AT I O N F R O M A L E X A N D R I A Marcus N . T od . . . 5 3

A N O C C U R R E N C E OF I R O N I N THE F O U RT H D Y N A S T Y D o ws D unham and

Wi l l ia m J . Yo u n g . . . 5 7

N O R M A N D E G A R I S D AV I E S A lan H . Gardiner .. . 5 9

J . D . S . PENDLEBURY S. R . K. Glanville ... 6 1BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS: N o t e s on Se ag o i ng Sh ip s by Percy E . N e w b e r r y, p. 6 4 ; T he Inver ted

U s e of Imy by J . Gw y n G r if fi th s , p. 6 6 ; G e o m e t ri c S e ri es and t he Rh ind Papy rus by R. S.

Wil l i ams on , p. 6 7 ; T he D u r a t i on of the F i f teenth Dy nas ty accord ing to the Tu r in Papy rus byRichard A . Parker, p. 6 8 ; An Ep i t a p h f r om H ermopo l i s by T . C. Skeat , p. 6 8 ; Br icks as Bi r th-S too l by W. E . C r u m , p. 6 9 .

REVIEWS OF R E C E N T PUBLICATIONS :

H o r n b l o w e r G. D . Osiris and His Rites Man, 1 9 3 7 Nos.S 8c 200 ; siris and the Fertility-rite Man, 1 9 4 1 , N o . 7 1 . Reviewed by J. Gwyn Griffiths ... 7 0

W i n l o c k H . E . Materials used at the Embalming of KingTuWankh-amun Metropolitan Museum of Art, Papers No .1 0 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Alan H . Gard iner ... 7 1

S a n d e r - H a n s e n C. E. Die religidsen Texte auf dem Sarg desAnchnesnefribre ... .- ... Bat t iscombe Gu nn ... 7 1


3/6

L I S T O F P L A T E S

Plate I Tut


4/6

(57)

AN OCCURRENCE OF IRON IN THE FOURTHDYNASTYBy DOWS DUNHAM nd WILLIAM J. YOUNG

IN Prof. G. A. Reisner s report on his excavations at the Third Pyramid1 the diaryentry for July 19, 1908, reads in part as follows: On the southern side of this room[room 8 in the Valley Temple], about the middle, in debris resting on the dividingwall, about 40 cm. above the floor, was a decayed shallow pan of copper upside down(pi. 61, e, f). On removing this, a deposit (08-7-30) was found of copper and stone

vessels, together with a fine flint wand inscribed with the names of Cheops, and amass of yellow coloring ma tter. Un der nea th were traces of decayed wood, and anoxidized red mineral not unlike iron rust; probably red oxide of copper (it was notattracted by a magnet). Th ese had evidently been in the pan which, with its contents,had been thrown out of the room (8) by plunderers and had fallen upside down.The objects included the wand, two model basins of slate, one of haematite, and oneof crystal, a model vase of alabaster and one of slate, a model hes-vase of copper,two m odel shoulder jars of copper, and a stack of six model basins of copper (08-7-31to 08-7-44) .

T he flint wand pss-kf) referred to is in the M useu m of Fine Arts, Boston (No. 11.765),and was long disfigured by a reddish-brown scaley deposit which partially obscuredthe fine incised inscription giving the names of Cheops.2 This deposit has recentlybeen removed and subjected to chemical and spectrographic analysis by Mr. W. J.Young of the museum staff. He soon obtained evidence that the m aterial in questionwas iron and, having in mind G. A. W ainwright s studies on the occurrence of thismetal in Egypt ,31 then asked him to try and determine w hether or not it was of meteoricorigin. The specimen available was minute, and the spectrographic method alonewas practicable, but the definitely negative results obtained in the attempt to identifynickel in two spectrograms lead to the conclusion that the metal is non-meteoric.

The association of the substance bv (iron) with the ceremony of opening themouth , to which Wainwright calls attention,4 is interestingly confirmed by this occurrence of iron with a magical set and a pss-kf of the Fourth Dynasty. It seems clearthat the set found by Reisner originally included an implement, or perhaps a block,of this metal, and that it was not of meteoric origin.

I append Mr. Y oung s report on his investigations of this sample, together witha photograph (pi. vi, bottom) of the second spectrogram referred to by him.

1 G. A. Reisner, Mycerinus, London, Humphrey Milford, 1931, p. 36.2 Op. cit., pi. 65, a.3 G. A. Wainwright , Iron in Egypt, \nJEA xvm, 3.4 Ibid. , 6 ff.
http://njea/http://njea/http://njea/


5/6

GOLD PL QUE FROM LEX NDRI

PL TE VI

SPECTROGR M O S MPLE O IRON FROM FLIN T W NDOF CHEOPS


6/6

58 D O W S D U N H A M A N D W I L L I A M J . Y O U N G

REPORT ON IRON DEPOSIT ON FLINT WAND FROM THE MYCERINUS VALLEY TEMPLE

A deposit which was found on a flint wand excavated at the site of the Temple ofMycerinus at Giza was submitted for chemical analysis.

A small fragment of the deposit was taken and a microchemical test for iron madeby the ferrocyanide method. This proved to be positive.

The remainder of the deposit was removed from the wand and submitted to aspectrographic analysis in order to ascertain if the element nickel was presen t. Tw ospectrographically pu re carbons were prepa red and used as electrodes. T h e lowerpositive ( + ) electrode was drilled and the deposit embedd ed in it. Th is was exposedfor 20 seconds in a 220-volt direct current arc. Fro m th e spectrogram strong ironlines were noted, and very weak copper lines at wave-lengths of 3247 and 3274Angstroms. No trace of nickel could be found in the spectrogram. The remainsof this deposit were then removed from the lower electrode and were found to bemagnetic.

In order to obtain a more simplified spectrum two spectrographically pure copperelectrodes were prep ared. T h e positive ( + ) electrode was drilled and the sampleemb edded in it and exposed for 64 seconds. Nickel was again sough t for, but w asfound to be absent.

The oxidized red mineral which Dr. Reisner refers to in the passage quoted aboveby Mr. Dunham must have been the iron in its ferric state, which is not magnetic.When ferric oxide is subjected to very high temperature it is converted into ferrous.oxide, which is mag netic. Th is explains why the samp le, after being removed fromthe bored electrode of the carbon arc in the above spectrographic analysis, was readilyattracted by a magnet.

As meteoric iron invariably contains a fairly high percentage of nickel, and as anyevidence of nickel was absent in the spectrograms, it must be assumed that the ironwas not of meteoric origin.

T h e weak copper lines observed in the first spectrpgram were du e, in all probab ility,to the presence of the oxidized copper pan un der which the wand was found. T hewooden covering protected (to a degree) the iron deposit on the wand from greatercontamination by the copper.

An Occurrence of Iron in the IV Dynasty

Documents

Transcript of An Occurrence of Iron in the IV Dynasty