Pharaoh Seti I by Nicky Nielsen

Author:Nicky Nielsen [Nicky Nielsen]
Language: eng
Format: epub

‘ I send as your greeting-gift a beautiful royal chariot outfitted for me, and 2 white horses, also outfitted for me, 1 chariot not outfitted and 1 seal of genuine lapis lazuli. Is such a present that of a Great King? Gold in your country is dirt; one simply gathers it up. Why are you so sparing of it? I am engaged in building a new palace. Send me as much gold as is needed for its completion.’³⁶

The peeved Assyrian ruler rather overstates the ease with which gold was mined in Egypt, although he was correct in his surmise that gold is not an uncommon mineral to find in Egypt’s eastern desert in particular. Gold is formed deep underground and forced to the surface encased in crystalline rock, usually quartz. By quarrying and crushing this matrix, the so-called ‘vein gold’ can be extracted, although time and water often eases the task by eroding the quartz matrix and leaving the more durable gold as small flecks in rivers or – crucially in Egypt’s eastern desert – where rivers used to run. The gold can then be collected by panning, a process whereby sediment is washed – or panned – to separate the lighter gravel and sand, leaving behind the heavier gold. Gold panning is made easier still by running the gold-bearing sediment across a sloping washing table overlain by a sheep’s fleece or similar fabric. Gravity and water will again wash away the lighter sedimentary elements, leaving the gold behind, caught in the folds of material or hair.

The Egyptians themselves recognized three sources of gold: the gold of Koptos, exploited primarily in and around Wadi Hammamat, Wadi Umm Awad and Wadi Mia in the eastern desert; the gold of Wawat, from Wadi Allaqi in Lower Nubia; and the gold of Kush, from Upper Nubia. While the Egyptians focused their energies and resources primarily on attaining control of the gold of Wawat during the Middle Kingdom, the New Kingdom pharaohs shifted much of their production back to the gold-rich wadis in the eastern desert near Koptos.

The mining operation itself was led by officials from specific temples, and manned by temple personnel, such as gold-washers and prospectors. Some evidence suggests that the backbreaking labour of crushing the gold-bearing quartz was conducted by prisoners-of-war or other captives, including women and children.³⁷ Once the gold was separated from the surrounding matrix by panning, it could be refined through melting in a crucible to remove impurities and then cast into gold rings for ease of transport. Raw gold from the eastern desert has a high level of naturally occurring copper and silver, which could not be effectively removed by the relatively crude refining practised by the Egyptians. This impurity of the gold caused, at least on one occasion, a diplomatic quarrel when King Burna-Buriash II of Babylon decided to test a gift of some 11.5kg of gold, which he received as a token of friendship from the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. After refining the gold by melting

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