Although the use of iron in Egypt was at an early period comparatively unknown, that of bronze was most extensive. The weapons of war,[26] the tools for various trades, including those of the engraver and sculptor, were all made of that metal, which in its crude form served also as a kind of circulating medium. It appears to have been mainly imported from Asia, some of the principal sources of copper being in the peninsula of Sinai. One of the chief mines was situated at Sarbout-el-Khadem, where both turquoises and copper ore were extracted, and the latter smelted at Wady-Nash. The copper mines of Wady-Magarah are thought to have been worked as early as the second dynasty, upwards of 3000 years B.C.; and in connection with ancient Egyptian mining, it is worthwhile again to cite Agatharchides,[27] whose testimony I have already adduced in my “Ancient Stone Implements,” and who relates that in his time, _circa_ B.C. 100, there were found buried in some ancient gold-mines in Upper Egypt the bronze chisels or wedges (λατομίδες χαλκᾶι) of the old miners, and who accounts for their being of that metal by the fact that when those mines were wrought, men were in no way acquainted with the use of iron. In the seventh century B.C., however, iron must have been in general use in Egypt, for on the landing of the Carians and Ionians,[28] who were armed with bronze, an Egyptian, who had never before seen men armed with that metal, ran to Psammetichus to inform him that brazen men had risen from the sea and were wasting the country. As Psammetichus himself is described as wearing a brazen helmet, the arms mentioned would seem to have been offensive rather than defensive. The source whence the tin, which formed a constituent part of the bronze, was derived, is much more uncertain. Indeed, to judge from M. Chabas’ silence, its name and hieroglyphic are unknown, though from some of the uses to which the metal designated by was applied, it seems possible that it may have been tin. On the whole, to judge from documentary evidence alone, the question as to the successive use of the different metals in Egypt seems to be excessively obscure, some of them being almost impossible to identify by name or representative sign. If, however, we turn to the actual relics of the past, we find bronze tools and weapons in abundance, while those of iron are extremely scarce, and are either of late date or at best of uncertain age. So strong, indeed, is the material evidence, that the late Mr. Crawfurd,[29] while disputing any general and universal sequence of iron to bronze, confesses that Ancient Egypt seems to offer a case in which a Bronze Age clearly preceded an Iron one, or at least in which cutting instruments of bronze preceded those of iron.