Note 478 — Chapter VI

Amongst the metals reference is made to iron so early as the time of the Emperor Ta Yü (2200 B.C.), when it is mentioned as an article of tribute in the Shu-King. F. Hirth, who states this fact, adds that during the same period, if not even earlier, iron was already a flourishing industry in the Liang district (Paper on the "History of Chinese Culture," Munich Anthropological Society, April, 1898). At the discussion which followed the reading of this paper Montelius argued that iron was unknown in Western Asia and Egypt before 1500 B.C., although the point was contested by Hommel, who quoted a word for iron in the earliest Egyptian texts. Montelius, however, explained that terms originally meaning "ore" or "metal" were afterwards used for "iron." Such was certainly the case with the Gk. χαλκός, at first "copper," then metal in general, and used still later for σίδηρος, "iron"; hence χαλκεύς = coppersmith, blacksmith, and even goldsmith. So also with the Lat. aes (Sanskrit ayas, akin to aurora, with simple idea of brightness), used first especially for copper (aes cyprium, cuprum), and then for bronze (Lewis and Short). For Hirth's later views see his Ancient History of China, 1908 (from the fabulous ages to 221 B.C.).