Ancient metallurgy
Last update: 03 Oct 1994 12:00First version:
Especially swords, bells, ritual objects. The bronzes of ancient China are a particular fascination.
- See also:
- Alchemy
- Archaeology
- Shamanism
- Recommended:
- Mircea Eliade, The Forge and the Crucible
- Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5 has, in the course of its discussion of alchemy, a lot to say about less esoteric sorts of working in metals.
- Cyril Stanley Smith, A Search for Structure: Selected Essays on Science, Art, and History and From Art to Science : Seventy-two Objects Illustrating the Nature of Discovery
- To read:
- Sandra Blakely, Myth, Ritual and Metallurgy in Ancient Greece and Recent Africa
- Dorothy Hosler, The Sounds and Colors of Power: The Sacred Metallurgical Technology of Ancient West Mexico
- Maikel Kuijpers, An Archaeology of Skill: Metalworking Skill and Material Specialization in Early Bronze Age Central Europe [The blurb at the link reminds me a little of "cognitive diagnostic" models from psychometrics/educational software...]
- Cyril Stanley Smith, A History of Metallography; the Development of Ideas on the Structure of Metals before 1890
