SHORT COMMUNICATION

Signs of Our Times A Discourse on the History of Metallurgical Symbolism John W. Yardy Danfoss A/S, DK-6430 Nordborg, Denmark

Signs and symbols play an undeniable role in everyday experience. In fact, symbolism has always played a vital role in visual communication, from the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt to the icons of modern computer software. The mysticism that often shrouds sym- bols is intensified as it adopts a variety of meanings through the course of time. In some cases the same symbol refers to a metal, a planet, and gender. Two such symbols are 9 and c~, representing the metals copper and iron, respectively. In the search to find a satisfactory explanation for the manifold significance of the symbols 9 and c~, ancient metallugists are shown to have influenced not only the culture of ancient Egypt but also the mythology of ancient Greece and Rome.

INTRODUCTION

The modern chemical symbols used for metals are, to a large extent, self-explan- atory, which is quite the reverse for the symbols inherited from ancient times. These symbols are difficult to explain sat- isfactorily, and their use in astronomy and zoology adds to the air of mystique that surrounds them. In some cases, the same symbol refers to a metal, a planet, a day of the week, and even gender. Two such met- als are copper and iron, represented, re- spectively, by the symbols 9 and c~.

Both these metals were amongst the first to be developed by the ancient civilizations of the Near East. Ancient Egypt survived for over 3100 years and was influenced by both the Bronze and Iron Ages. During this period, symbolism and magic were the Egyptians' primary forms of thought [1]. This culture led to a number of mysterious cults, e.g., chemists, who for many cen- turies were called alchemists. Kmt (pro- nounced "Chem") means "the Black Land," which was in their imagistic lan- guage as the Egyptian name for the silt coy-

ered fertile area along the Nile valley. Chemistry was an Egyptian art, the pur- pose of which was to fulfill the objectives of cult and magic, and was, in fact, known as black magic until modern times [2].

In the search to find a satisfactory ex- planation for the manifold significance of the symbols 9 and c~, we must consider that the Bronze Age metal worker lived among people having a mythical view of the world, with an outlook governed by images and not logic. However, this atti- tude did not stop the forefathers of metal- lurgy from creating the foundation for our modern technological society.

SYMBOLISM

The famous Swiss psychologist, Carl Gus- tav Jung, claimed that the human race can- not live without signs and symbols [3]. At their best, both signs and symbols are eas- ily recognizable, and their design can be quite straightforward. A sign is a self-ex- planatory image even for those who cannot read a text. Thus, warnings on labels,

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~3Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc., 1992 MATERIALS CHARACTERIZATION 29:267-270 (1992) 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010 1044 5803/92/$5.00

268 J. w. Yardy

traffic signs and even the icons or, more correctly, ideograms of modern computer software, fall into this category. Symbols, on the other hand, are unreal and abstract, for they go beyond the bounds of the image or motif. Only the initiated know their meaning; the outsider does not. The whole symbolic evolution rests upon the supposed, as intuitively understood by the mind and visualized by the eye [1].

The hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt are a good example of this belief, serving at the same time also as a written language. Hi- eroglyphs portray images that are also phonograms that reproduce consonants. This close connection between writing and drawing was supposed to make the intan- gible become graphic. However, hiero- glyphs are difficult to translate by applying an analytical approach because the au- thors' power rested in his knowledge of mistique, and, therefore, hieroglyphs were often a play with words and magic spells.

For the alchemist, all symbolism crys- tallizes around the poles of existence, and images are composed of three basic parts, a circle, a cross, and a crescent. The circle or ring represents the sun and, therefore, divinity and eternity. The cross represents the four elements that ancient man consid- ered all material to originate from, i.e., fire, water, air, and earth. The crescent repre- sents the moon and passivity. By combin- ing these parts, relationships between heavenly bodies, the elements, and human activity could be described.

COPPER AND ANCIENT EGYPT

The alchemists symbol for the metal cop- per is 9. The modern symbol is Cu, de- rived from the Latin cyprium aes, which means Cyprus. Long before the Romans mined copper on Cyprus, copper had been used commercially for several thousand years by the ancient civilizations of Me- sopotamia and Egypt.

The earliest objects made from native copper are more than 10,000 years old and originate from the Near East. In the Chal-

colithic period between 5000 and 3000 B.C., the melting of copper and smelting from ore was developed in Mesopotamia, and eventually reached Egypt around 3400 B.C. The first great stone building in the world, Zoser's step Pyramid ca. 2670 B.C., was erected when only copper and stone tools were available. Even the largest of all the pyramids, Cheop's Pyramid ca. 2500 B.C., was completed before the Bronze Age be- came established in Egypt.

The Bronze Age began in the Near East before 3000 B.C., becoming well established in Mesopotamia around 2800 B.C. and six centuries later in Egypt. The first alloys were smelted from copper ore containing arsenic. Smelting would have reduced the arsenic to a very low level, because of vol- atility of arsenic oxide. The fumes gave off contained arsenic and were very poison- ous and, if the metalworkers did not die on the spot, they quickly contracted pe- ripheral neuritis and became lame. So it is more than a coincidence that the metal- workers' gods, Hephaistos in Greece and Vulcan in Rome, were both lame. The myths surrounding these gods originated at a time and place where metalworkers were often lame. Despite the clear advan- tages of arsenical bronzes, they were phased out within about 300-400 years during which time copper-t in alloys were developed [4].

The importance copper had in ancient Egypt is reflected not only in the many ar- cheological finds from tombs and temples, but also from the existence of extensive mining and smelting industries in Sinai and the Easten Desert during the 3100 years and 31 dynasties of Pharaoh rule [5]. One of the most significant finds was the intact tomb of Tutankhamun, who died in 1340 B.C. There were more objects of cop- per than bronze among his possessions. A thousand or more years later, Homer in the Illiad inadvertently leaves no doubt to the importance of copper and bronze weapons when portraying the death of Hector at the hands of Achilles: "Through his throat the burning edge of copper ran."

Egyptian culture, from the earliest times,

Metallurgical Symbolism 269

was preoccupied with everlasting life, the hieroglyphs telling more of life after death than the life of flesh and blood. Central among the hieroglyphs is the Ankh, which represents life, and as a symbol points to the divine, i.e., eternal existence. For more than 4000 years, copper was the utility metal for tools, weapons, and jewelry and in Egypt's hot and dry climate, it did not corrode, and its beauty could be retained. Therefore, it is quite probable that copper had the status of the metal of life and was symbolized by the Ankh, which became, through the course of time, the symbol we now know as 9.

COPPER AND VENUS

The symbol for copper is also used as the symbol for the planet Venus, which is the Earth's sister planet and nearest neighbor, being some 40 million km nearer the sun. Venus is covered by an atmosphere of car- bon dioxide and a high cloud layer con- sisting of droplets of sulphuric acid. About 70% of the light falling upon Venus is re- flected by this impenetrable layer, and, when seen from Earth, it is the brightest and clearest of the planets, being outshone by only the sun and the moon.

Originally, the planet was named Phos- phorus, Greek for the bringer of light, its brightness being compared to the intense light of burning phosphorus. Because of its brightness, this planet has always been re- garded as a heavenly body of great beauty, and in the third century B.C., the Romans renamed the planet "Venus" in honor of the Roman goddess of beauty.

For the Egyptians, light had to battle with the chaotic forces of darkness who were hostile to life, the kingdom of the dead remaining in eternal darkness [1]. By analogy, the symbol for life, represented by the Ankh, also represents light. Until medieval times, mirrors were made of pol- ished copper or bronze; thus, copper also became synomous with light and beauty. Therefore, the Ankh not only represented life and light but also, through its deriva-

tive 9, the bright and beautiful planet Venus and the metal of life, light and beauty, copper.

IRON AND MARS

The symbol for both iron and the planet Mars is c~, while the modern symbol for iron is Fe, derived from the latin Ferrum. The ancient home of iron working was Western Asia, and Egypt was the last country in the Near East to enter the iron age. Native iron was very rare and small beads from predynastic times containing nickel suggest meteoric origins [5].

Around the time of Tutankhamun (1358-1340 B.C.), iron was probably con- sidered to be a precious metal, which is reflected in the fact that only one small iron dagger was found among Tutankhamun's many possessions in his tomb. The use of iron in Egypt became established around 1200 B.C. as the availability of tin used in bronze became limited, and by 700 B.C. iron was as common as bronze and was being smelted in Egypt. Between 676 and 663 B.C., Egypt, still armed with bronze weapons, suffered a series of crushing de- feats at the hands of the Syrians, who were armed with iron weapons. From this time onward, iron technology quickly spread throughout the Near East, and iron became the preferred metal for weaponry.

This much later use, in Egypt, of iron as compared to copper, limits any hiero- glyphic source for its symbol. In all prob- ability, the symbol for the planet Mars was adopted for iron.

Mars is the second nearest planet to the Earth, being some 75 million km further from the sun. It is known as the "Red" planet; "the Viking Mission" in 1972 found the redness to be due to iron oxide in a mineral clay soil that covers its surface. However, contrary to popular expecta- tions, no biological activity was found on Mars (<0.5g sample!).

The symbol for the planet Mars is a ring with an inclined arrow on the top. Pre- sumably, the arrow was originally a cross

270 J.W. Yardy

or half cross that indicates both creative and destructive powers. The planet was named by the Romans in honor of Mars, the god of war. The Greek equivalent to Mars was the Olympian god Ares. He was not popular among the Greeks, who thought of him more as a blood thirsty demon than a god. His unpopularity was matched by the Egyptian god Seth, who killed his brother Osiris. Seth was the "red" god, lord of the desert, the red land, and was depicted as a desert animal with an arrowlike tail and having red eyes and red hair, a figure symbolic of danger. The color red became a figurative expression for anger, and it was natural for the Ro- mans to couple the red planet with its cre- ative and destructive powers to the ag- gressive warrior god Mars. A good choice, considering our present-day knowledge that the color is caused by compounds of iron.

His threatening and impulsive behavior might be the reason why the arrow in the symbol for Mars no longer points directly upwards to the divine, but is inclined away showing misfavor in the heavens. The arrow could originate from Seth's arrow- like tail, or it could simply represent wea- ponry. As Mars controlled the genitalia, the arrow could even represent a phallus.

GENDER

Venus (Greek, Aphrodite) was the god- dess of love, affection, beauty, and fertil- ity, being the conception of all female vir- tues. Accordingly, it was natural conse-

quence to use the symbol for the planet Venus, 9, to represent the female gender.

Mars (Greek, Ares) was the god of war, strength and aggression, in fact an image close to manliness. Therefore, the symbol for the planet Mars c~ also represents male gender.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANT SYMBOLS WITH MANIFOLD MEANING

Symbol Metal Planet Day Gender, etc.

O Gold Sun Sunday King/day

) Silver Moon Monday Queen/night

(~ Iron Mars Tuesday Male

Mercury Mercury Wednesday

Tin Jupiter Thursday

Copper Venus Friday Female

Lead Saturn Saturday

The author is grateful to Hanne Sollingvraa for preparing the manuscript.

References

1. M. Lurker, The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt, Thames and Hudson Inc., New York (1988).

2. O. Bostrup, Isis og Osiris~ Dansk Kemi 71:395 (1990). 3. C. G. Jung, Man and His Symbols, Pan Books, Lon-

don (1978). 4. M. Harper, Br. J. Industr. Med. 44:652 (1987). 5. A. Lucas and J. R. Harris, Ancient Egyptian Materials

and Industries, Edward Arnold Ltd., London (1962).

Received July 1991; accepted August 1991.