Metallurgy
Several metals are mentioned in the ancient Hebrew texts. Traditional interpretation typically yields the following meanings:
- nehes = copper (possibly including copper alloys, aka bronze)
- berezel = iron
- yeperet = lead
- bedil = traditionally interpreted as tin, but somewhat inconclusive.
- kecep = sometimes erroneously translated as silver but actually refers to “coins” of various metal.
See also gemstones
Metal processing techniques mentioned include:
Several instances indicate that nehes refers to copper, not bronze. Deuteronomy 8:9 refers to digging copper directly from the ground. This is possible to do since copper occurs naturally in its elemental form. Bronze on the other hand does not occur naturally but is an alloy which can only be produced by human intervention through a series of somewhat complex and intentional steps including the introduction of other metals such as tin. Similarly, Job 28:2 refers to melting nehes from stone, a simple method or metal extraction from a basic ore. Copper has one of the lowest melting points of any metal and can be refined in a relatively primitive way simply through use of a wood-burning firepit. Copper and Gold are the two easiest metals to work with, and archaeological evidence exists for the use of both at least as far back as eleven thousand years ago.
Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, was likely not invented until around 6500 years ago.1) Bronze, being a mixture, lent itself to a great deal of metallurgical experimentation and a variety of “recipes” were employed by ancient metallurgists to achieve a variety of desires attributes. For example, by varying the relative amounts of tin and copper, a stronger or a more malleable result could be achieved, each of which would lend itself better to different purposes.
Although the ancient Hebrew texts do mention tin, they make no mention of the process of alloying it with copper. This fact seems to strengthen the interpretation of nehes as copper rather than bronze.
Generally, ancient cultures used bronze before iron. This is due to the fact that iron has a significantly higher melting point and therefore depends on more advanced kiln technologies to achieve the required temperatures. There is evidence of iron work in northern Syria dating back as early as 4500 years ago2), but the shift from “bronze age” to “iron age” when iron tools and weapons began to displace bronze ones occurred at various times in different regions, but is typically dated from around 4000 years ago.
Thus, when Genesis 4 credits Tubal-Cain as the first worker in both “bronze and iron”, the narrative presents a bit of a dilemma. The inclusion of iron in this claim could be interpreted to indicate that the narrative of Genesis 4 took place no earlier than the beginning of the iron age transition, possibly as early as 4,500 years ago. However, if Tubal-Cain is truly to be credited as the first bronze-worker, the archaeological evidence pushes his date back to 6,500 years ago. The problem is exacerbated by the knowledge that 'nehes' probably actually refers to copper rather than bronze. If Tubal-Cain was the first coppersmith, he would have had to live around 11,000 years ago.