orichalcum/tumbaga example with 70% gold, the remainder copper and silver
orichalcum/tumbaga example with 70% gold, the remainder copper and silver
Plato's Atlantis - "Something more than a name - orichalcum - was dug out of the earth in many places of the island, and, with
the exception of gold, was esteemed the most precious of metals among the men of those days."
"There were mines of it in many places of the island."
"orichalcum which sparkled like fire." (Bury)
"flashed with the red light of orichalcum. " (Jowett translation)
"In the first place they dug out of the earth whatever was to be found there,
mineral as well as metal, and that which is only a name and was something more than a name then, orichalc,
was dug out of the earth in many parts of the island, and except gold was the most precious of metals" - ,
"The entire circuit of the wall... which encompassed the citadel,
flashed with the red light of orichalcum. Jowett
R.G. Bury, writing in 1929 not knowing how to translate orichalcum thought that it might be a form of
mountain copper,
saying
"they covered all the circumference of the wall which encompassed the acropolis itself [116c] with
orichalcum which sparkled like fire." and adding notes, "mountain copper"
a "sparkling metal hard to identify"
and translates "Metals to begin with, both the hard kind and the fusible kind, which are extracted by mining, and also
that kind which is now known only by name but was more then a name then, there being mines of it in many
parts of the island, - I mean 'orichalcum' which was the most precious of the metals then known, except gold."
Desmond Lee translating in the pre-Internet days of 1971 did not believe either in Atlantis or in orichalcum
which he called
"a completely unknown and imaginery metal"
but he does translate it as being
"in those days the most valuable metal except gold."
There is no need to discredit orichalcum as being an imaginery metal when such
a metal does in fact exist, an alloy of copper and gold
is found in the Andes, when the copper is dissolved from the
surface it resembles pure gold and is initially indistinguishable from gold, making it naturally the
second most valuable metal after gold.
In Atlantis, the temples were also hung in sheets of gold, silver
and orichalcum with pinnacles of silver and they had numerous statues
in gold of their ancestors just as they had in Peru at the time
of the Conquest and it is this vast
wealth of gold of the Andes which helps identify it as the site of Atlantis.
Some people believe every single word of Plato's account to be true, while
other people believe every single word to be totally false. Yet there are small
details, like the mysterious alloy called "Orichalcum" which one translator, Sir
Desmond Lee considered to be "a completely imaginary metal" but actually exists
in the Andes as an alloy of gold and copper. Here is what Karen Olsen Bruhhs
writing in "Ancient South America" has to say about it... "Copper and copper
alloy objects were routinely gilded or silvered, the original colour apparently
not being much valued. The gilded copper objects were often made of an alloy
which came to be very important in all of South and Central American metallurgy:
tumbaga. This is a gold-copper alloy which is significantly harder than copper,
but which retains its flexibility when hammered. It is thus ideally suited to
the formation of elaborate objects made of hammered sheet metal. In addition, it
casts well and melts at a lower temperature than copper, always a consideration
when fuel sources for a draught were the wind and men's lungs. The alloy could
be made to look like pure gold by treatment of the finished face with an acid
solution to dissolve the copper, and then by hammering or polishing to join the
gold, giving a uniformly gold surface."
The process was further explained and demonstrated by Adam Hart-Davis in his
programme "What The Ancients Did For Us" screened by the "Open University"
(BBC2) 2nd March 2005. Since gold was not used as a currency, it was valued more
for its colour and beauty, gold being the "sweat of the sun" and silver being
the "tears of the moon." Taking a small piece of Tumbaga consisting of 50% gold
and 50% copper, the alloy was hammered into the shape of a miniature mask
suitable for mounting on a finger ring.
At this stage it looked like polished copper before
being annealed by heating with a torch to a cherry-red colour at a temperature
of 500º.
The alloy was then quenched in water whereby it turned black due to the
copper on the surface oxidising and turning into copper oxide on top of the
gold.
The alloy was then immersed in a hot solution of Alum whereupon like some
ancient alchemical process, the copper oxide dissolved away revealing a shining
gold surface of quote "the most noble of the metals looking like pure gold."
So there is nothing "imaginary" about Orichalcum.
When the Spanish conquistadores melted down some of their gold treasures to make bullion bars
for shipment back to spain, they were disappointed to find a large percentage of their gold booty rurned out to be
the gold copper alloy tumbaga.
Orichalcum, also known as Tumbaga, was a naturally ocurring alloy and as such
the percentage of gold to copper would have varied, with a greater percentage of copper giving more of a red colour....
Copper is reflected in the very name of the
country itself since "Antis" means "copper" in the Aymara/Quechua languages and is the origin of the "Andes"
mountains
name, one quarter of the Inca empire was called "Antisuyo" meaning "kingdom of the Antis" which was the
north-eastern slopes of the Andes in Peru where the people also called "Antis" lived.
There are numerous
copper mines throughout the Andes
but those at Chuquicamata are located on
the south-west corner of the Bolivian rectangular plain, today in Chile although when Bolivia was founded
in 1825 it would have been in lower Peru on the edge of the Bolivian border at the rio Loa
and Bolivia at that time included a section of the Pacific coastline.
According to the Wikipedia article,
"it has
by far the largest total production of approximately 29 million tonnes of copper to the end of 2007....
There are several versions of the meaning of Chuquicama... another theory is that it means 'Pico de Oro' or
'Peak of Gold'...
After the War of the Pacific when Chile annexed large areas of both Peru and Bolivia north of its old border,
including Chuquicamata there was then a great influx of miners into the area drawn in by 'Red Gold
Fever' (La Fiebre del Oro Rojo)."
Red Gold? Sounds like Orichalcum!!!
see also gold and wealth of Atlantis
by Jim Allen, author
more about tumbaga and South american pre-Columbian gold
a small block of
orichalcum before working the metal is
punched into the shape of a mask
the untreated
alloy of orichalcum heated until it turns
cherry-red
quenched in
water it turns black due to the copper oxide
the copper oxide is dissolved in
a solution of alum
left, the alum
dissolves away the copper oxide to reveal a gold-like object
right,
Orichalcum after the copper has been dissolved from the surface
above, orichalcum looking like gold on the
left and looking like copper on the right
Above, (left) a gold mask from the precious metals museum, La Paz.
Above (right) a mask and collar of Orichalcum
twins were a feature of Atlantis; above and below, orichalcum (tumbaga) twins.
above, orichalcum (tumbaga)
above, raft made of orichalcum (tumbaga)
above, orichalcum (tumbaga) bird
above, pre-Columbian "birdman", orichalcum (tumbaga) Smithsonian
Atlantis: the Andes Solution
The Atlantis Trail
Atlantis: Lost Kingdom of the Andes
