COPPER IN HISTORY

Humans Meet Metal

Between seven and ten thousand years ago, our

early ancestors discovered that copper is malleable, holds a sharp
edge, and could be fashioned into tools, ornaments, and weapons
more easily than stone, a discovery that would change humanity
forever. This meeting of humans and metals would be the first step
out of the Stone Age and into the ages of metals: the Bronze and Iron
Ages.
It appears that during the first few thousand years of its use, humans
experiment with and learned techniques to utilize copper.

As they got better at working with it, civilizations became more complex,
which in turn often enabled better copper-working technology.

With this came expanded use of copper and a greater movement of copper into
our everyday environment.
 Metallurgy is Born

Gold is believed to have been used earlier than copper, though its softness and
scarcity made it impractical for widespread use.

copper is harder and found in pure form (“native copper”) in many parts of the
world. (Gold and copper's distinct colors and existence in pure form made it easy
for our early ancestors to distinguish the two metals from other minerals and stones
they came across.)
There is disagreement among archaeologists about the exact date and location of the
first utilization of copper by humans.

Archaeological evidence suggests that copper was first used between 8,000 and 5,000
B.C., most likely in the regions known now as Turkey, Iran, Iraq and — toward the
end of that period — the Indian subcontinent.

Archeologists have also found evidence of mining and annealing of the abundant
native copper in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the United States dating back to
5,000 B.C.
Native copper was likely used first, as it did not require any process to purify it. It
could have been hammered into shapes although it would have been very brittle.
Annealing was the first step toward true metallurgy, when people discovered that
copper became more flexible and easy to work with when it was heated before
hammering. Next, casting of molten copper into molds was developed. At some
point humans discovered copper ore and — possibly by accident — that the ore
could be heated to very high temperatures in a low-oxygen environment to melt out
the pure copper, a process known as smelting. This lent more flexibility to copper
crafting; no longer was native copper the only kind of useful copper if copper could
be extracted from ores.
The Sumerians and the Chaldeans living in ancient Mesopotamia are believed to be the
first people to make wide use of copper, and their copper crafting knowledge was
introduced to the ancient Egyptians.

The Egyptians mined copper from Sinai and used it to make agricultural tools such as
hoes and sickles, as well as cookware, dishes, and artisans' tools such as saws, chisels,
and knives.

By comparing the purity of copper artifacts from both Mesopotamia and Egypt,
scientists have determined that the Egyptians improved upon the smelting methods of
their northern neighbors in Mesopotamia. Most copper items in Egypt were produced by
casting molten copper in molds. The Egyptians appear to have been one of several
groups that independently developed the “lost-wax” method of casting, which is still
used today.
 Bronze

The Egyptians may have been the first group to discover that mixing copper with arsenic
or tin made a stronger, harder metal better suited for weapons and tools and more easily
cast in molds than pure copper. (Since copper ore often contains arsenic, this may have
been the unintentional result of smelting copper ore that included naturally occurring
arsenic.)

This alloy of copper with arsenic or tin is called bronze, and there is
archeological evidence that the Egyptians first produced bronze in 4,000 B.C. Bronze
may have also been developed independently in other parts of the Middle East and other
parts of the world. Regardless of where it originated, bronze metallurgy soon overtook
copper in many parts of the globe, thus ushering in the Bronze Age. (In parts of the
world that lacked deposits of tin, copper was used alone or alloyed with other metals
until iron was introduced.)
The smelting process for bronze made with arsenic would have produced
poisonous fumes. People may have preferred tin-based bronze or found that it
was easier to control the amounts of tin added to copper than it was to control
the amount of arsenic, which often occurred naturally in copper ore. Whatever
the reason, bronze made with tin soon became the bronze of choice throughout
the Middle East.
Tin deposits were more confined to certain geographical areas than copper, which was
readily available in many parts of the Middle East as well as other parts of the world.
As people began using bronze instead of pure copper to make weapons and tools, trade
in tin developed. The availability of bronze led to more advanced tool and weapon
making, and with better weapons, armies could better conquer neighboring societies
(and plunder their tin and copper resources).
 Copper Crafting and Spirituality
As copper helped humans to advance warfare, it also has played a role in the
religious and spiritual life of people around the world through time. Hathor,
Egyptian goddess of the sky, music, dance and art, was also the patron of Sinai,
the major copper mining region of the Egyptians; she was often referred to as
“Lady of Malachite.”

To the people of the Andes in South America, who developed the most advanced
metallurgy in pre-Columbian America, copper metallurgy was more than a
secular craft for producing tools. Using native copper, Andean artisans made
religious items from pounded copper foil and gilded copper.
In many pre-colonial sub-Saharan cultures as well, coppersmiths were
believed to have powers as shamans, magicians, and priests because of
their intimate knowledge of earth, minerals, and fire and their ability to
produce metal from ore. In some parts of the continent coppersmithing
was an inherited position with master smiths passing secret knowledge
on to their sons. Mining, smelting, and casting of copper ore were
preceded by elaborate ceremonies to ensure that the endeavors were
safe and fruitful.
Copper was first used in China around 2500 BC. The Chinese quickly began using
bronze as well, and used different percentages of tin in bronze for different purposes.
They used copper and bronze extensively for coinage. During the flourishing economic
activity and expanded foreign trade in the Sung dynasty, circa 900 to 1100 AD, the use
of cash—round copper coins with a square hole in the middle—exploded. Copper
production was now reaching almost industrial proportions in some civilizations, though
probably nowhere more than in ancient Rome.
 The history of metallurgy in the Indian subcontinent

India has a great history of metal work, and smelting of metals and deriving alloys,
which was done as far back as 3000 BCE. The trade of metal products was extensive
between India, Egypt and Rome. Tools of iron and steel from ancient India were of
great demand for many purposes. It is indicated that the first weapons of steel for the
people of the Mediterranean came from India.

It began prior to the 3rd millennium BCE and continued well into the British Raj.
Metals and related concepts were mentioned in various early Vedic age texts.
The Rigveda already uses the Sanskrit term Ayas (metal).

The Indian cultural and commercial contacts with the Near East and the Greco-Roman
world enabled an exchange of metallurgic sciences.
With the advent of the Mughals, India's Mughal Empire (established: April 21, 1526—
ended: September 21, 1857) further improved the established tradition of metallurgy
and metal working in India.

The imperial policies of the British Raj led to stagnation of metallurgy in India as the
British regulated mining and metallurgy—used in India previously by its rulers to build
armies and resist England during various wars
Copper was another metal that the people of ancient India learned how to use
expertly. From as far back as 3000 BCE, people had made fine copper axes
with sharp cutting edges by casting the copper in molds. The capital of this
technology was around Ujjain, as well as the Nasik-Ahmednagar-Pune and
other districts
Many of the ancient Sanskrit texts contain instructions on metal work,
such as the building of furnaces as found in the Brihad-vimana-shastram,
or bellows, or the making of metal powders or binders or glue, as in
the Rasendra-sara-sangrahah, Shilpa-ratnam, and Rasa-ratna-
samucchaya, all from the 9th, 11th and 12th centuries CE. 1

The Atharva Veda (Shukranti 4.7.194-196) mentions the procedure of

production of lead shots or granules,
By the crude way of atomisation of liquid metals. These lead shots were
used like bullets for punishing thieves
It is known that there are some 44 old texts that describe the process of
Indian metallurgy. One of the most well-known of these texts is called
the Rasaratna Samucchaya.

In it we find descriptions of many aspects of this technology, including the

structural arrangement and function of the chemical laboratory, the kosthi
yantra (the furnace), the tiryak patana yantra (vessels for containing
chemicals), the dheki yantram (the distillation pot), and other things, like the
chemical work to be done in the laboratory.
The Aswalanan Grihya Sutra mentions that when a child is born, the father should
feed him from a golden vessel with clarified butter and honey with which he has
ground the gold dust. This rite was performed for the sake of longevity and the
general health of the child.

Manusmriti (2.29) also mentions that before the navel string is cut,
the jatkarma ceremony must be performed for a male child, feeding him gold dust,
honey and clarified butter. This is also described in the Sushruta Samhita (Sarir
10.12)
“ The most important discovery of instruments of copper yet recorded in India was
made by some shepherd boys who, while tending cattle in the village of Gunjeria
in the district of Balaghat in the Nagpur Division of the Central Provinces,
observed a piece of red metal peeping out of earth in a plot of waste land. On
receipt of this news in 1870 Mr. Bloomfield, Deputy Commissioner of Balaghat,
had the place excavated and as many as 424 copper implements and weapons and
102 pieces of thin silver plates were discovered in one place measuring about three
feet in length, three feet in breadth and four feet in depth. The discovery of this
remarkable find was announced at the May meeting of the Asiatic Society of
Bengal, 1870
Of the ores of copper known in ancient India and from which copper was
extracted, copper pyrites were the most important.

Copper glance, malachite and red copper ore were very likely known.
Regarding the compounds of copper the sulphide and the sulphate we're
prepared artificially.
The sulphate or blue vitriol as well as green vitriol were known from the
3rd century B.C, showing that the difference between the two vitriols was
known in India at a time when it was not suspected in Europe.
As regards metallurgy of copper, alchemical literature gives
formulae for preparing copper by heating copper pyrites with
various organic substances in closed crucibles.

Description of the process of manufacture on a large scale as

well as of furnaces is however wanting.

Fortunately the old indigenous process of manufacturing copper

from " pyrites still continues in several places in Rajputana,
Sikkim and Nepal and from the description of these processes as
left by several observers about a century ago we get some idea
of the process and furnaces as might have existed in ancient
India.

The pyrites after proper roasting was heated with charcoal and
flux in small blast furnaces, the blast being provided by hand
bellows.