[Jewelry making - Article 01450] - Re: [Orchid] Primitive technologies

[Len and Judy Bjorkman]

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    Janet,  metal  jewelry is not known [yet!] before about 6,000 B.C.,
    and then it was made from native copper  and perhaps some rare native
    lead. Oddly enough, really early gold jewelry has yet to be
    discovered. The processes of melting and smelting took a little
    longer to discover (but certainly were known by ca. 3800 B.C.,
    judging from the fascinating copper artifacts found in the Cave of
    the Treasure, along Israel's Dead Sea coast).There are several
    interesting (and theoretical) stories about how this might have
    happened. Suffice it to  say that by 2500 B.C., the jewelry from the
    Royal Cemetery at Ur shows that Mesopotamian [i.e., ancient Iraqi] 
    jewelers were capable of almost every jewelrymaking process that we
    know today -- lost-wax casting, forging, soldering, inlay,
    granulation (probably), wire-making, repousse, etc. I never tire of
    adding that the earliest uses of metals (including iron) were for
    jewelry, not weapons, and for a very long time. 

    For more on this, consult Jack Ogden's books (he's on the Orchid
    list) and get a copy of Roger [P. R. S.] Moorey's classic volume,
    Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries (published by Oxford's
    Clarendon Press in 1994, and reissued by Eisenbraun's more
    recently). 

    I  enjoyed Jean Auel's books, too. I'm glad she didn't depict Ayla
    as a smelter, along with everything else she did, because there's no
    evidence for that type of metalworking in Ayla's time. 



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