Etymology is quite clear that the word meant to describe amber colored alloy, which is the color of naturally occurring alloy. The composition of man-made electrum according to Herodotus is 1 part of silver to 4 part of gold.
Oppi Untracht wrote a book, Jewelry Concepts and Techniques that I
consider a bible of jewelry His book refers to electrum
as 80% gold and 20% silver, and is a pale yellow color. Maybe
Herodotus was wrong?
Richard Hart
I have never seen any literature referencing electrum to Ancient Egypt. Can you provide some sources on the subject.
Check out Egyptian Metalworking and Tools by Bernd Scheel, published
by Shire Egyptology.
Below several links that reference Electrum in ancient Egypt. Because
silver was very rare, electrum was considered even more precious than
gold. When naturally occurring, the alloy was found in varying
ratios, creating a range of slightly different colors. Most sources
indicate that the alloy was made with more than 20% silver up to 50%
silver. (It’s important to keep in mind that amber comes in range of
colors too, and so such a color description can’t be exact.)
A great image of an electrum and gold necklace, showing the contrast
in colors:
Magazine cover, with an electrum ring, featuring Nefertiti:
http://www.egyptology.com/kmt/winter2001_02/front.jpg
Brief descriptions of electrum:
http://nefertiti.iwebland.com/trades/metals.htm
Not a particularly scholarly sight, but features a photo of
naturally occurring electrum taken from the wonderful but
out-of-print book, The Emergence of Man: The Metalsmiths, 1974
http://www.mythinglinks.org/T_LGoldSilverElectrum~r20.JPG
Hope this helps.
On another note, I think I missed how this thread went from
“Platinum enhanced sterling” to being about electrum, but I seem to
recall Nanz mentioning the article about in Art Jewelry last winter.
Can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it, but just in case, I’ve worked
with the new Sterling-Platinum from ABI, and it’s a really great
alloy. Works like sterling but work hardens to give a stronger
structure that is great for filigree when white metal is desired at a
much lower cost than white gold. The color and finish are (forgive
the technical term) rather yummy.
Best wishes,
Victoria
Victoria Lansford
Leonid, here are some references to electrum, mainly in ancient
Mesopotamia; some of them occasionally mention Egypt.
–P.R.S Moorey, Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries
(Oxford; 1994) pp. 217ff.
–Karin Reiter, Die Metalle im Alten Orient (Munster; 1997) pp.
2-3 (the oldest known gold objects currently come from a cemetery at
Varna, in Bulgaria, and date to sometime in the 5th millennium BC;
some fascinating electrum rings were found in a cave at Nahal Kana
(Israel/Palestine) and date to the 4th millennium BC; see Current
Anthropology, vol. 31 [1990] pp. 436-443)
–K.R. Maxwell-Hyslop, Western Asiatic Jewellery (Methuen; 1971)
pp. lxiv-lxvi
–Jack Ogden, Jewellery of the Ancient World (Rizzoli; 1982) p.
18ff.
–Joan Aruz (ed.), Art of the First Cities (Yale U. Press; 2003),
see pp. 116-117 (electrum artifacts from the Royal Cemetery at Ur,
dating to about 2500 BC), p. 265 (Anatolia), p. 302 (Susa, Iran).
Judy Bjorkman
His book refers to electrum as 80% gold and 20% silver, and is a pale yellow color. Maybe Herodotus was wrong?
4 parts gold and 1 part silver is exactly 80% gold and 20% silver.
Looks to me like Herodotus and Oppi Untracht is in agreement.
Leonid Surpin
The problem is that there is no universally accepted definition of
what electrum is. Unlike sterling, or the karat values for gold
alloys there are a myriad of alloys called electrum so pick your
favorite and defend it to the death, or get over it and accept that
electrum is a gold silver alloy of varying proportions depending on
if it is naturally occurring or man made and who made it…
Jim
James Binnion
@James_Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts
360-756-6550
I have never seen any literature referencing electrum to Ancient Egypt. Can you provide some sources on the subject.
Try 5th Dynasty Pharoh Sahure. Electrum was one of the things brought
back by an expedition he sent to eastern Africa.
Ron Charlotte – Gainesville, FL
Hi Folks…
As a coin nut…it’s believed that some of the first coinage was
of electrum… Whether natural or man made alloy…this would put it
back about 650 BC… The Lydians…
The natural alloy was roughly 80% gold, 20% silver (1 part silver, 4
parts gold)…with other stuff Ma Nature throws in… It mighta
been tweaked for durability, and, er…governmental
considerations…for coinage…
A while back, I was interested in electrum as a jewelry material…
Prowled Ebay, and the stuff was greenish…Which did not seem to
correspond to the ancient description…
Wikipedia has a mention to the Third Millenium BC…in
Egypt…but no actual doc as far as I saw… Apparently they used
gold or electrum (thinly, no doubt) to cover the pyramid tips…
Not a whole lot of surviving literature from 3000 BC floating around
at that…so it’s hard to say…
Believe it’s in the Bible, too…
Gary W. Bourbonais
A.J.P. (GIA)
Leonid, thank you for clarifying the difference between old (18ct
approx) electrum, and modern (12ct) electrum. With a substantial
difference in value there is room for customers to be confused and
suspicious of the generic term ‘electrum’. Although the colour gives
a fair indication of the purity, perhaps jewellers should mark the
carat value of the electrum they use.
Alastair
Oppi Untracht wrote a book, Jewelry Concepts and Techniques that I consider a bible of jewelry His book refers to electrum as 80% gold and 20% silver, and is a pale yellow color.
To be exact, Oppi wrote “approximately 80% gold and 20% silver”.
Since these were naturally occuring alloys, they would of course
vary considerably from region to region and from different periods.
‘Electrum’ is a name given by the Greeks (7th c. BC). Thus,
cultures prior to the Greeks also using naturally occurring local
ores simply would not have called them ‘electrum’…:-)…
Naturally occurring gold/silver ores generally contain AT LEAST
20% silver. Etruscan gold (6th and 7th c. BC) was 60-67% Au, 30% Ag,
3-8% Cu, and up to 2% trace elements (Walters, Gold Bulletin 14-3).
The oldest granulated jewelry was from Ur (Sumerian) from
2560-2400BC and in all likelihood was done with a naturally
occurring Au/Ag alloy.
Janet in Jerusalem
Oppi Untracht wrote a book, Jewelry Concepts and Techniques that I consider a bible of jewelry His book refers to electrum as 80% gold and 20% silver, and is a pale yellow color. Maybe Herodotus was wrong?
P.R.S. Moorey, on p. 217 of his book, Ancient Mesopotamian
Materials and Industries, says the following about electrum. After
noting that the name is derived from the Greek word for amber, he
continues,
“[Electrum] describes a mixture of gold and silver, pale yellow in
colour. In mineralogy it is applied to native argentiferous gold
containing 20–50 per cent of silver; its definition when artificial
is arbitrary. Pliny used the term to describe alloys of gold and
silver with one part of silver to four of gold. Laboratory research
has not proceeded far enough with ancient objects of precious metal
from Mesopotamia to make separate treatment of this metal possible,
since the distinction between natural and deliberate electrum may not
be confidently drawn. Many of the rare analyses of Mesopotamian
‘gold’ show that it is in fact electrum, but whether a natural or a
deliberate alloy is not invariably clear.”
Judy Bjorkman
I want to thank everybody for providing sources, but I did not
stated my questioned correctly in the first place so I will restate
it
now.
Victoria made a point that electrum was used in Ancient Egypt prior
to Ancient Greece. Everything what I have read indicates that origin
of this alloy cannot be dated to Ancient Egypt. Bellow are few
examples:
According to Ancient Records of Egypt by James Henry Breasted all
electrum in Ancient Egypt was imported. Here are some excerpts:
Punt, 80,000 measures of myrrh, [6,000]… of electrum, 2,600 […]
staves, […] Every [statue] is overlaid on its body with electrum
of Emu … necklaces, amulets, and pendants of real electrum,
brought to his majesty from the south countries as their yearly
impost
The first trading expedition in Ancient Egypt, recorded on the walls
of tomb of Harkhuf, was dated to 2300 BC. It was spice-trading
venture into Nubia.
The first expedition to Punt is dated to 1500 BC. Punt was the source
of naturally occurring electrum.
Neither of Punt, nor Emu were technologically advanced, so the most
likely scenario is that manufactured electrum was the result of
trade between Phoenicia and these kingdoms. The whole timeline is
contemporaneous with the height of Minoan Civilization.
Also electrum was the first metal used for coinage and the first
coins were produce in Ionia dating to 650 BC.
There are numerous other examples indicating contemporaneous use but
I am not aware of a single one, pinning down the claim that electrum
was used in Ancient Egypt prior to Ancient Greece.
As a possible source of confusion, there was an alloy in Ancient
Egypt called asem, recipe follows:
Manufacture of asem :Tin, 12 drachmas; quicksilver, 4 drachmas;
earth of Chios, 2 drachmas. To the melted tin add the powdered earth,
then add the mercury, stir with an iron, and put it into use.
Asem is also known under name of “eleetrum”. This alchemical recipe
was to make electrum from common components, but it does not
indicate that electrum was used in Ancient Egypt prior to Ancient
Greece.
My question is:
Does anybody know of a reference which pins down the proposition,
and I mean dates, records, names, and etc, that Ancient Egypt was
using electrum prior to Ancient Greece, and what was the name of that
alloy which is now known as electrum ? As I mentioned before electrum
has etymological roots indicating Greek origin.
Leonid Surpin.
Does anybody know of a reference which pins down the proposition, and I mean dates, records, names, and etc, that Ancient Egypt was using electrum prior to Ancient Greece, and what was the name of that alloy which is now known as electrum ? As I mentioned before electrum has etymological roots indicating Greek origin.
I’m not sure which culture you mean by ‘ancient Greece.’ According
to ‘Egyptian Metalworking and Tools,’ electrum was used by the
ancient Egyptians in predynastic times, which means before 3000BC. (I
can’t find what the evidence is, but all the books I’ve checked agree
with this date though the earliest tomb painting of metal workers
dates from 2500BC.) The Minoan civilization was from approximately
2700BC - 1450BC after which time the Mycenaeans took over Crete. The
world ‘electrum’ wouldn’t be Minoan in origin as that language is not
thought to be a precursor of Greek. Ancient Greece is now thought to
have begun around 1000BC, Classical 490BC, and Hellenistic 423BC.
That Minoans used electrum first might be debatable, but that the
Greeks did would not be.
Instead of James Henry Breasted, try T. G. H. James’ ‘Gold Technology
in Ancient Egypt: Mastery of Metal Working Methods’ for more recent
info.
While some gold was mined within what are now Egypt’s borders, in
antiquity much of it came from Nubia, which was part of Egypt’s
empire and under Egypt’s control for the better part of 3000 years
(until the Nubians took over Egypt and ruled in the 25th dynasty).
The exact location of the land of Punt is a hotbed of debate among
Egyptologists. No one really knows where it was. There were gold
mines in Egypt, and concerning imported metal, what the evidence
indicates (tomb paintings and official court documents) is that
metals were mined and sometimes smelted and cast into ingots before
being brought to Egypt as tribute, but that most all of the alloying
and artwork were executed in Egypt.
It should be noted that the Greeks of the classical and Hellenistic
period had a tendency to record their travels in Egypt and included
their own names and explanations of much of the technology, but only
some of these descriptions are likely true accounts. Herodetus wrote
of a pyramid building machine 2000 years after the pyramids at Giza
were built, and it is apparently mind bogglingly impossible in
reality.
Ok, stop me. I’ve completely geeked out!
Victoria
who at age 5 was so inspired by ancient Egyptian metalwork that she
grew up and became a smith and almost became an Egyptologist too but
decided she’d rather make art than dig it up
Victoria Lansford
perhaps jewellers should mark the carat value of the electrum they use.
I believe that here in the US, gold less than 14K cannot be marked
as gold, so this would not be a solution. Am I right on this, folks?
Noel
i don’t know how you got on the electrum topic but I have done 2
pretty wild tours of egypt. I go and hang out and learn from some old
guys in the Khan el Kalili market of Cairo. there is a huge
metalsmithing district there. there are some craftsmen there that use
electrum in their work in various proportions of silver and gold.
you can still see electrum on top of obelisks at the very top, what
they call the pyramidian. check out Cleopatras needle in central park
NYC behind the MET. the top of this huge erected stone still has the
origional electrum. this is the largest one single stone in New York,
from Egypt, it was erected by Masons about 100 years ago. the
Washington Monument in DC would have had an Electrum pyramidian if it
was not for a new metal that was avaliable…alluminum, this
pyramidian was cast in Philly, at 9 inches tall it was the largest
piece of cast alluminum to date. Casey from the army corp of enginers
had to go up to Philly to get it out of the hands of the guy who cast
the piece…why, because he was taking it to all of the Pubs in
Philly, he would tell people if they bought him a drink they could
step over it…why, because they could tell there grand kids that
they stepped over the top of the Washington Monument! true story. if
ya really want to spinn yourself out check out the relationship to
the porportions of obelesks to their pyramidians…
nice to see this metalic tread get sewn up with alittle metalic
history…
much love and respect to all.
wayne werner
I believe that here in the US, gold less than 14K cannot be marked as gold, so this would not be a solution. Am I right on this, folks?
Err, not quite. 10k in the US is the lowest valid karat and I am not
certain you can legally mark 50/50 electrum as it as 12K though I
doubt anyone would come knocking on your door about it. I think you
would have to mark it as 10K, but don’t quote me on that.
Jim
James Binnion
@James_Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts
360-756-6550
Hi Noel,
I believe that here in the US, gold less than 14K cannot be marked as gold, so this would not be a solution. Am I right on this, folks?
What about 10K gold - comes both white and yellow.
Judy in Kansas
As I mentioned before electrum has etymological roots indicating Greek origin.
linguistics are the key here.The earliest translations were from
Assyrian,Sumerian,etc. into Greek like early christian texts.At
about the 14th century a.c.e. is when the words blur mostly with the
introduction of Latin translations of the earlier Greek translations
of ancient,already out of use,or dead dialects and languages. In
older texts,for example, the Vedas.predate both civilizations if you
ascribe to the belief that ancient Vedic culture existed since the
beginning of time.In them, the atharva-veda speaks of
agni-lat-ur…and is transliterated as meaning fire bound
mixture…that is probably the source of the many variations of the
word electrum,dating to 5780-95 b.c.e.according to Vedic time
and.meaning-- an alloy.Predating the Gupta kings and dynastic India,
post Aryan and Indus valley civilizations mixing, gold and silver
were known and widely used in ayur-veda (health and practical life
applications) and,atharva-veda ( magical and alchemical-like texts of
a system based on natural elements and their powers and subtleties)
and other schools.that taught the science of life and that from the
beginnings of trade between cultures, pre-silk road, words have
drifted in and out of their original speaking groups and into all
tha,first - came in contact with x, group and secondly that adopted
and in some cases adapted the words into a lexicon more in keeping
with their own dialectic pronunciations such as familiar consonance
and assonance applied to spelling…so in looking at a word like
electrum- clearly a latinized version of any group of words cross
culturallly, we can perhaps trace it back to the oldest known
language sanskrit…from which agnilatur…with a little imagination,
sounds like the root of electrum based on the assonance and
consonance solely, when you add in the meaning of the word- a
firebound mixture- it makes perfect sense. In India the oldest known
alloy is 80% gold to 20% silver and is ascribed to the deity Brahma(
as in Bhrama’s preferences or perscription for puja) from whom the
world is said to have emerged from his navel…Dhanvantari, the
universe’s original physician from whom the ayur-veda is said to have
come,alloyed 50% gold with 50% silver and is the agni-lat-ur of
medicine, metal for containment of foods previously offered to
deities( prasadat),and metal for making adornment acceptable to the
entire Hindu pantheon…one alloy good for everything and all forms
of humankind…or so say the Vedas…So linguistics it seems are the
root of the entire formulation of the alloy and the origin of the
variants as well from an historical perspective…
R.E.Rourke
I believe that here in the US, gold less than 14K cannot be marked as gold, so this would not be a solution. Am I right on this, folks?
no, 10 karat gold exists and is marked as such…in the UK it is
9Kt.- the minimum amount of gold to still be considered gold…rer
Victoria and all. Thanks for the trip through Antiquity. I couldn’t
resist correcting your date for the Hellenistic period.
Strictly speaking, the Hellenistic age commences with Alexander the
Great (336-323 B.C.), and refers to the spreading of Greek culture
and colonization over the non-Greek lands that were conquered by him.
Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Afghanistan, and the
Indus Valley, creating the huge and prosperous Hellenistic “Empire”.
The total destruction of the two hundred year-old Persian Empire and
its ultimate replacement by a number of independent Greek kingdoms
represented the final triumph of autocracy over democracy in the
Greek world. Many of the city-states regained some of their lost
liberty in the 2nd century B.C. with the weakening and gradual
disintegration of the great Hellenistic Kingdoms. But it was merely a
brief respite, for the power of the Greek kings was replaced by an
even mightier authority - that of Rome - which was destined to
dominate the entire Mediterranean world for the following
half-millennium.
Off hand I don’t recall seeing any electrum coinage or jewellery
from the Hellenistic culture, I suspect that a universal quality
standard for gold and coinage was one of the first results of
Hellenic unification. Subsequent electrum coinage was probably a
deliberate debasement undertaken by rulers and governments during
times of monetary stress and not a case of using alluvial electrum,
if it actually occurs at all. (I’m sure someone will answer this
question.} What does amaze me is the ability that the ancients had to
recover, refine and manipulate gold. I suspect that they had the
technology or secret for this much farther back in history then we
generally believe.
Dennis Smith - thejewelmaker
Hi Dennis,
there was a report in New Scientist a few years ago, I will see if I
can find my offprint, apparently the Egyptians had a method for
purifying gold by heating it in a clay pot with salt, for a couple of
days, held at exactly the right temperature. (if my memory serves me
correctly). They found a piece of broken pot that had traces of gold
on the inside and the other metals diffused through it. They though
it had been accidentally dropped, and that this process was done
commercially, so to speak.
regards Tim.
