The riddle of Egypt’s gold
QUESTION Where did all the gold used by the Ancient Egyptians come from?
GOLD was in extensive use in Egypt before 3100 BC. It was extracted from the alluvial sand along the banks of the Nile.
According to historian leslie Aitchison, the use of sheep pelts to trap gold in the washing process inspired an Ancient Greek myth: ‘The washings were passed over the fleeces and the particles of gold adhered to the wool. Almost certainly, the legend of the Golden Fleece sought by Jason had its basis in this practice.’
By 2000 BC, gold was being extracted by shallow surface mining. Possibly the oldest map in the world, held in the Turin museum from 1100BC, depicts the gold region of Wadi Hammamat between the modern towns of Quena, north of luxor on the Nile, and Quesir on the Red Sea.
The ores extracted from the area were free milling gold quartz extracted by hammering or crushing.
Gold was also mined in Nubia, south of Aswan. The name comes from nub, the Ancient Egyptian word for gold.
So extensive was this mining that in 1853 English traveller Sir John Gardner Wilkinson wrote: ‘So diligent a search did the Egyptians establish throughout the whole of the deserts east of the Nile for this precious metal that I never remember to have seen a vein of quartz in any of the primitive ranges there which had not been carefully examined by their miners; certain portions having been invariably picked out from the fissures in which it lay and broken into small fragments.’
once this source dried up, miners were driven underground. The 1st century BC Greek historian diodorus Siculus described in vivid detail the use of slave labour in terrible working conditions:
‘The miners follow, in their labours, the direction of the metallic threads and are assisted by the light of lamps in the subterranean darkness. The stones are carried outside, and are there crushed and reduced to small fragments.
‘The workmen never cease from their toil; they are forced incessantly to the work by bad treatment and by blows of the whip. Even children are not spared; some are sent to carry the blocks of stone, others to break them into fragments.
‘The fragments are taken by older workmen, of over 30 years of age, and crushed in iron mortars. The fragments thus crushed are then found in mills, which are turned by women and aged men.’
Not all the gold that adorned the pharaohs came from deposits and mines under their control. Egypt traded in gold, ebony and slaves with the land of Punt around the Gulf of Aden.
A. E. Cowan, Aberdeen.
QUESTION Who is the 13th century Italian poet that Bob Dylan refers to in his song Tangled Up In Blue?
TANGLED Up In Blue is on the 1975 album Blood on The Tracks: ‘Then she opened up a book of poems And handed it to me Written by an Italian poet From the 13th century And every one of them words rang true And glowed like burnin’ coal Pourin’ off of every page Like it was written in my soul From me to you Tangled up in blue.’ A prime candidate is dante Alighieri. The ‘burnin’ coal’ might be a reference to the metaphorical fire ‘pourin’ off’ every page of Inferno, the celebrated Fifth Canto from The divine Comedy.
However, Timothy Hampton, in Bob dylan’s Poetics: How The Songs Work, argues that the Italian poet is Petrach. He demonstrates how Tangled Up In Blue can be written as a series of Petrarchian sonnets. However, Petrarch lived in the 14th century.
In a 1978 interview, dylan intimated, in his anti-intellectual way, that the poet was Plutarch, adding: ‘Is that his name?’
Plutarch was a 2nd century Greek philosopher, but his name sounds like Petrarch and dylan has a long history of misleading interviewers.
Henry Wray, Hemel Hempstead, Herts.
QUESTION When drovers took livestock to market, how many miles a day could they be driven?
DROVING, the driving of herds of cattle, sheep, pigs and geese along Welsh roads towards the rich pastures of central and southern England, was common from the Norman period.
The export of store cattle, which required fattening up for slaughter, played a vital part in the economy.
Archbishop John Williams of Bangor implored Royalist commander Prince Rupert to permit the passage of drovers into England during the Civil War: ‘For they are the Spanish fleet of Wales which brings us what little gold and silver we have.’
droving reached a peak during the Industrial Revolution when it was vital for feeding a growing workforce.
Most droves comprised three to fouryear-old store cattle with a few milking cows and the odd bull. Up to 12 drovers would guide 400 cows, with corgi dogs making sure the animals kept together.
once the chaos caused by the mixing of several herds had abated, the drove set off. It took a few days to settle down to a steady two miles per hour, a gentle pace that would allow the animals to graze along the way. The drove would cover between 15 and 20 miles per day.
Each drove was planned with care: a strenuous day over a rough mountain track would be followed by a shorter day to allow the animals to recover.
despite these precautions, cattle from North Wales might lose up to 100lb during the drove. More affluent drovers rented or bought land in the Midlands where they could restore the condition of their cattle before sending them to market.
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