The Forge and the Crucible

Éliade, Mircéa

doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226026541.001.0001

Cited by 45 publications

(42 citation statements)

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“…According to this concept, metals are born within the Earth-Mother, where they "ripen" from the original embryonic state into the full perfection of silver and eventually gold. 39 Mining and metallurgy accepted these ideas on two levels. Recovery of a metal from its ore was looked upon as its birth and, simultaneously, even as late as the seventeenth century, there was widespread belief among miners in Europe that precious metals could ripen in an exhausted mine, provided that it was closed for the appropriate amount of time.…”

Section: Mythological and Religious Beliefsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Recovery of a metal from its ore was looked upon as its birth and, simultaneously, even as late as the seventeenth century, there was widespread belief among miners in Europe that precious metals could ripen in an exhausted mine, provided that it was closed for the appropriate amount of time. 40 The idea of ripening was crucial to alchemy; therefore, it was important to know the sequence of steps in such a process. Over time, sequences were proposed that began with the metal considered to be the least precious and ended with gold.…”

Section: Mythological and Religious Beliefsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Systems of Metals in Alchemy

Karpenko¹

2003

Ambix

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Two distinct ways of ordering of the seven ancient metals, denoted as System I and II in this paper, can be found in alchemical sources. In System I metals are arranged with gold in the central position: lead, tin, iron, gold, copper, mercury, silver. This arrangement bears resemblance with Ptolemaic system of planets which could have contributed to the origin of this System. Symmetrical positions of the pairs lead-silver and iron-copper with respect to the central, gold-Sun were supported by practical observations. More widespread System II arranges metals from the least to the most precious ones. In this system gold is always the last member of the series. The ordering of base metals in System II has only one typical feature: in most cases iron precedes copper. Therefore attention was paid to redox deposition of copper from cupric solutions on metallic iron. This reaction was important support of claims that transmutation of metals is possible. Further redox depositions mentioned in alchemical and chemical works are also discussed with special attention paid to the influence of impurities on resulting process. One reaction described in alchemical manuscript was repeated in laboratory to show the possible approach chosen by alchemist.

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Section: Mythological and Religious Beliefsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Mythological and Religious Beliefsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systems of Metals in Alchemy

Karpenko¹

2003

Ambix

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“…There are many interpretations of alchemy. Weyer (39) has suggested three possibilities: (a) the American chemist ArthurJohn Hopkins' chemical interpretation (9,40), (b) the Swiss psychiatrist Carl GustavJung's psychological interpretation (41), and (c) the Rumanian historian of religion Mircea Eliade's mythological interpretation (42). According to the psychological interpretation, man is the base metal which is refined and perfected by the process of psychotherapy (33,Chap.…”

Section: Alchemy: Its Goals Origins and Accomplishmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of gold in alchemy. Part I

Kauffman

1985

Gold Bull

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Since ancient times and in eveiy culture, gold has been valuedfor its beauty as wellas for itsuniquephysicalandchemicalpropenties. Henceitisnotsuwprzsingthatthepseudoscience of alchemy arose almost everywhere from earliest times in an attempt to convert base metals into the 'king of metals The idea of transmutation was based upon observation of the ubiquitous changes occurrrng in nature and the application of analogies and correspondentes. Its piimary theoretical basis lay in the various theoi ies of matter which reduced the bewildering diversity of material substances to several fundamental'elements: Among the most important ofthese theories were those

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“…Lechtman , 1984Lemonnier 1986 1993). Structured according to specific worldviews, the resulting technological processes in these instances are often expressed in terms of analogies with bodily and social processes (Eliade 1962;Childs and Killick 1993: 325;Helms 1993: 18):…”

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confidence: 99%

Reconstructing the iron production technologies of western Uganda: reconciling archaeometallurgical and ethnoarchaeological approaches

Iles

2012

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

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The local production of iron was an important technology in eastern Africa up until the later twentieth century, when the use and reuse of imported iron overtook vernacular smelting industries and cemented their decline. Prior to this, the utilisation of local ores had produced iron for agricultural implements, household tools and weapons, serving the needs of many generations of farmers and herders across the region.The smelters of western Uganda enjoyed a particularly esteemed reputation in recent history, especially among their neighbours in Buganda, yet prior to this research little was known about the technologies upon which this reputation was fostered. This thesis presents the results of six months of fieldwork in Uganda and subsequent archaeometallurgical analysis, which together revealed the complexities of smelting in western Uganda between the fourteenth and twentieth centuries.Exploring this new archaeometallurgical dataset has indicated that some iron producers in Mwenge (a particularly iron-rich region of western Uganda) were selecting manganese-rich ores with which to supplement the iron ores in the smelt, imparting a tangible effect on the process and outcomes of these smelting episodes, hypothetically increasing the metal yield and improving operating parameters.Although such harnessing of beneficial manganese-rich minerals was an unexpected and unusual finding, technological reconstructions of these smelts highlighted several other interesting features, including the consistent use of grog temper in technical ceramics, the occasional use of banana pseudostems, and variations in furnace style.Combining these discoveries with existing ethnoarchaeological and ethnohistorical data, and building upon social approaches to iron technologies, it was possible to explore some of the possible reasons for this variation, adding colour and time-depth to the understanding of iron production within this region.4

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The Forge and the Crucible

Cited by 45 publications

References 0 publications

Systems of Metals in Alchemy

Systems of Metals in Alchemy

The role of gold in alchemy. Part I

Reconstructing the iron production technologies of western Uganda: reconciling archaeometallurgical and ethnoarchaeological approaches

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