[Jewelry making - Article 00256] - Re: [Orchid] Technology and Design

[Len and Judy Bjorkman]

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>         Umm, I may be wrong on this but I kind of thought the process
>     of casting has been around for about 4000 years.  If you're talking
>     about the process of making rubber molds, that's another story but
>     I'd be hard pressed to say that the Etruscan's jewelry making
>     skills plummeted after the Egyptians tried some casting. 


    Daniel, I totally agree with your reasoning, and your history is not
    bad, but I'd just like to add the following:  the  process  of
    lost-wax casting has been around for almost 6000 years and may have
    originated in Turkey or somewhere in the Levant.  (It pains me  to 
    admit  that it  didn't  originate in Sumer, where so  many of the
    world's "firsts" have been found, but one  must go  with the 
    evidence!)  The great hoard  of copper tools,  weapons, and ritual
    artifacts from Nahal Mishmar in Israel dates  to almost 3700 BC. 
    Simpler mold casting  in the  form of a copper macehead comes from
    Can Hasan in Turkey, dating to about 5000 BC.  So far,  the earlier
    jewelry and small  tools are made from hammered  native copper, the
    earliest dating to  about 7000 BC, from Cayonu Tepesi, also in
    Turkey.  (The oval pendant  from the Shanidar Cave  in Iraqi
    Kurdistan, dating to almost 9000 BC and often  cited as the earliest
    example of the use of copper, is much more likely originally to have
    been carved from malachite.) All the best, Judy Bjorkman 


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