Metalworker

History

By the historical periods of the Pharaohs in Egypt, the Vedic kings in India, the Tribes of Israel, and the Maya civilization in North America, among other ancient populations, humans had begun to attach value to precious metals over and above any available functional metal tools and weapons. Gold or silver trinkets became luxury goods in antiquity. In some cases rules for ownership, distribution, and trade were created, enforced, and agreed upon by various peoples. By the above periods metalworkers were very skilled at creating objects of adornment, religious artifacts, and trade instruments of precious metals (non-ferrous), as well as weaponry (usually of ferrousmetals and/or alloys). Sophisticated techniques were practiced by artisans, blacksmiths, atharvavedic practitioners, alchemists, and other categories of metalworkers around the globe. For example, the granulation technique occurs in numerous ancient cultures before the historic record shows people traveled to far regions to share this process. Metalsmiths today still use this and many other ancient techniques.