[Jewelry making - Article 00469] - Re: [Orchid] Platinum enhanced sterling?

[Victoria Lansford]

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>     Does anybody know of a reference which pins down the proposition,
>     and I mean dates, records, names, and etc, that Ancient Egypt was
>     using electrum prior to Ancient Greece, and what was the name of
>     that alloy which is now known as electrum ? As I mentioned before
>     electrum has etymological roots indicating Greek origin. 

    I'm not sure which culture you mean by 'ancient Greece.' According
    to 'Egyptian Metalworking and Tools,' electrum was used by the
    ancient Egyptians in predynastic times, which means before 3000BC. (I
    can't find what the evidence is, but all the books I've checked agree
    with this date though the earliest tomb painting of metal workers
    dates from 2500BC.) The Minoan civilization was from approximately
    2700BC - 1450BC after which time the Mycenaeans took over Crete. The
    world 'electrum' wouldn't be Minoan in origin as that language is not
    thought to be a precursor of Greek. Ancient Greece is now thought to
    have begun around 1000BC, Classical 490BC, and Hellenistic 423BC.
    That Minoans used electrum first might be debatable, but that the
    Greeks did would not be. 

    Instead of James Henry Breasted, try T. G. H. James' 'Gold Technology
    in Ancient Egypt: Mastery of Metal Working Methods' for more recent
    info. 

    While some gold was mined within what are now Egypt's borders, in
    antiquity much of it came from Nubia, which was part of Egypt's
    empire and under Egypt's control for the better part of 3000 years
    (until the Nubians took over Egypt and ruled in the 25th dynasty). 

    The exact location of the land of Punt is a hotbed of debate among
    Egyptologists. No one really knows where it was. There were gold
    mines in Egypt, and concerning imported metal, what the evidence
    indicates (tomb paintings and official court documents) is that
    metals were mined and sometimes smelted and cast into ingots before
    being brought to Egypt as tribute, but that most all of the alloying
    and artwork were executed in Egypt. 

    It should be noted that the Greeks of the classical and Hellenistic
    period had a tendency to record their travels in Egypt and included
    their own names and explanations of much of the technology, but only
    some of these descriptions are likely true accounts. Herodetus wrote
    of a pyramid building machine 2000 years after the pyramids at Giza
    were built, and it is apparently mind bogglingly impossible in
    reality. 

    Ok, stop me. I've completely geeked out! 

    Victoria 

    who at age 5 was so inspired by ancient Egyptian metalwork that she
    grew up and became a smith and almost became an Egyptologist too but
    decided she'd rather make art than dig it up 

Victoria Lansford
http://www.victorialansford.com
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