[1] The earlier source of copper was Sinai, where there yet remain thousands of tons of copper slag in the Wady Nasb. In the XVIIIth dynasty and onwards, Cyprus--the Kupros island of copper--came into regular connection with Egypt, and probably supplied most of the metal. [Illustration: METAL STATUARY 110. Merenra (VIth dynasty) 111, 112. Takushet (XXVth dynasty)] Bronze has been found in one case as far back as the IIIrd dynasty, but this was only a chance alloy. It began to be regularly used in the XVIIIth dynasty, 1600 B.C.; and the source of the tin for it is a point of interest in early trade. Cornwall and the Malay States are the only modern sources of importance; but probably other surface sources have been exhausted, as in the case of gold deposits. Now bronze is found in Central Europe about as early as in Egypt, and it is unlikely to have been imported there from Egypt, or to have been traded there as soon as it would be to a great state like Egypt. The presumption would be that it originated about Central Europe. As a district in Saxony is known as Zinnwald, and crystallised oxide of tin is still brought from there and from Bohemia, it is very likely that there may have been stream tin deposits capable of supplying Europe and Egypt. [Illustration: METAL VASES 113. Bronze pouring vase 114. Bronze fluted vase 115. Silver anti-splash bowl] In the XVIIIth dynasty bronze vessels were wrought very skilfully by hammer-work. The flask (fig. 113) for washing the sandals of Amen, inscribed with the owner’s name and titles, is 9 inches high and has a body 4 inches across; it has been hammered on anvils introduced through the neck, which is only 1¼ inches wide. By the weight of it (7 ounces) it cannot average more than ⅟₄₀th inch in thickness. A general mode of stiffening the thin metal vases was by fluting the surface (fig. 114), a method also used in prehistoric Greece.