1.The First Materials(Stone Age and Copper-Stone Age) 9 FIGURE 1.4.A portion scale operation that involved workers who supplied the fuel,oth- of a mural from the ers who were involved in transportation,and naturally the actual tomb of the Vizier miners. Rekh-Mi-Re at Thebes Subsurface ores are often more complex in composition than depicting metal melt- those found on the face of the earth.In particular,they contain ing and casting during the second millenium sulfur that needs to be removed before smelting.For this,a sep- B.C.in Egypt.Note arate heating process,which we call today "roasting,"needed to the foot-operated bel- be applied. lows,the heaps of Among the earliest metalworkers in Europe were people in charcoal,and the whose graves characteristic bell-shaped clay cups have been “green"wood sticks found,and who therefore are called the Bell Beaker Folk.They with which the hot were superb potters and coppersmiths.They traveled across the containers were held. continent from Poland to the west and north to Scandinavia and (Reprinted by permis- the British Isles,offering their services as makers of knives,spear sion from B.Scheel, heads,hammers,axes,and as tinkerers.They spread the knowl- Egyptian Metalworking edge of metalworking across Europe during the second and third and Tools,Shire Publi- cations,Aylesbury, millennia B.C.However,it is not quite clear where the Bell Beaker U.K.) Folk came from,but it is assumed that they originated in Spain. In this context,it is interesting to know about a Stone-Age man (named by the press,"Otzi"),whose well-preserved,mummified body was found in 1991 in a glacier of the austrian-Italian Alps (Tyrol)at an altitude of 3200 meters.Carbon-14 dating(taken on his bones and soft tissue)places his age at approximately 3300 B.C.,which is in the European Chalcolithic period.Among his possessions was an axe with a wooden handle of yew that had a small blade of copper(not bronze)whose size is 9.5 cm in length and 3.5 cm in breadth (Plate 1.5).Further,he possessed a small knife with a stone blade attached to a wooden handle and a bowscale operation that involved workers who supplied the fuel, oth￾ers who were involved in transportation, and naturally the actual miners. Subsurface ores are often more complex in composition than those found on the face of the earth. In particular, they contain sulfur that needs to be removed before smelting. For this, a sep￾arate heating process, which we call today “roasting,” needed to be applied. Among the earliest metalworkers in Europe were people in whose graves characteristic bell-shaped clay cups have been found, and who therefore are called the Bell Beaker Folk. They were superb potters and coppersmiths. They traveled across the continent from Poland to the west and north to Scandinavia and the British Isles, offering their services as makers of knives, spear heads, hammers, axes, and as tinkerers. They spread the knowl￾edge of metalworking across Europe during the second and third millennia B.C. However, it is not quite clear where the Bell Beaker Folk came from, but it is assumed that they originated in Spain. In this context, it is interesting to know about a Stone-Age man (named by the press, “Ötzi”), whose well-preserved, mummified body was found in 1991 in a glacier of the Austrian–Italian Alps (Tyrol) at an altitude of 3200 meters. Carbon-14 dating (taken on his bones and soft tissue) places his age at approximately 3300 B.C., which is in the European Chalcolithic period. Among his possessions was an axe with a wooden handle of yew that had a small blade of copper (not bronze) whose size is 9.5 cm in length and 3.5 cm in breadth (Plate 1.5). Further, he possessed a small knife with a stone blade attached to a wooden handle and a bow 1 • The First Materials (Stone Age and Copper–Stone Age) 9 FIGURE 1.4. A portion of a mural from the tomb of the Vizier Rekh-Mi-Re at Thebes depicting metal melt￾ing and casting during the second millenium B.C. in Egypt. Note the foot-operated bel￾lows, the heaps of charcoal, and the “green” wood sticks with which the hot containers were held. (Reprinted by permis￾sion from B. Scheel, Egyptian Metalworking and Tools, Shire Publi￾cations, Aylesbury, U.K.)