Note 222 — Chapter IV · THE PROTO-CHALCITIC OR COPPER AGE OF WEAPONS.

Thus we have a blue war-helmet of ring-mail (Lepsius, Denkmäler, iii. 115 &c.), a blue war-hatchet with wooden handle, and spears pointed with brown-red and blue (copper and iron) in the tomb of Ramses III. The war-car of an Æthiopian king, in the days of Tutankamun, has blue wheels and a body of yellow (gold). Lepsius, however, adds: ‘It is very remarkable that in all the representations of the old empire, blue-painted instruments can scarcely be traced.’ This simply proves that iron and steel were rare.