Editing Brass (section)

===Early copper-zinc alloys===
In [[West Asia]] and the [[Eastern Mediterranean]] early copper-zinc alloys are now known in small numbers from a number of 3rd millennium BC sites in the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]], [[Iraq]], the [[United Arab Emirates]], [[Kalmykia]], [[Turkmenistan]] and [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] and from 2nd millennium BC sites in [[western India]], [[Uzbekistan]], [[Iran]], [[Syria]], Iraq and [[Canaan]].<ref>Thornton 2007, pp. 189–201</ref> Isolated examples of copper-zinc [[alloy]]s are known in [[China]] from the 1st century AD, long after bronze was widely used.<ref name=r5/> The hilt of [[Sirohi sword|Sirohi swords]] were made up of [[brass]] in [[India]].

The compositions of these early "brass" objects are highly variable and most have zinc contents of between 5% and 15% wt which is lower than in brass produced by cementation.<ref name="Craddock and Eckstein 2003 p.217">Craddock and Eckstein 2003 p. 217</ref> These may be "natural alloys" manufactured by smelting zinc rich copper ores in [[redox]] conditions. Many have similar tin contents to contemporary bronze [[Artifact (archaeology)|artefacts]] and it is possible that some copper-zinc alloys were accidental and perhaps not even distinguished from copper.<ref name="Craddock and Eckstein 2003 p.217"/> However the large number of copper-zinc alloys now known suggests that at least some were deliberately manufactured and many have zinc contents of more than 12% wt which would have resulted in a distinctive golden colour.<ref name="Craddock and Eckstein 2003 p.217" /><ref>Thornton, C. P. and Ehlers, C. B. (2003) "Early Brass in the ancient Near East", in IAMS Newsletter 23 pp. 27–36</ref>

By the 8th–7th century BC [[Assyria]]n [[cuneiform]] tablets mention the exploitation of the "copper of the mountains" and this may refer to "natural" brass.<ref>Bayley 1990, p. 8</ref> "Oreikhalkon" (mountain copper),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/orichalc?q=orichalcum|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150109114154/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/orichalc?q=orichalcum|url-status=dead|archive-date=9 January 2015|title=orichalc – definition of orichalc in English from the Oxford dictionary|work=oxforddictionaries.com}}</ref> the [[Ancient Greek]] translation of this term, was later adapted to the [[Latin]] ''[[aurichalcum]]'' meaning "golden copper" which became the standard term for brass.<ref>Rehren and Martinon Torres 2008, p. 169</ref> In the 4th century BC [[Plato]] knew ''orichalkos'' as rare and nearly as valuable as gold<ref name=r11/> and [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] describes how ''aurichalcum'' had come from [[Cyprus|Cypriot]] ore deposits which had been exhausted by the 1st century AD.<ref>Pliny the Elder ''Historia Naturalis'' XXXIV 2</ref> [[X-ray fluorescence]] analysis of 39 [[orichalcum]] ingots recovered from a 2,600-year-old shipwreck off Sicily found them to be an alloy made with 75–80% copper, 15–20% zinc and small percentages of nickel, lead and iron.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/atlantis-legendary-metal-found-in-shipwreck-150106.htm|title=Atlantis' Legendary Metal Found in Shipwreck|work=DNews|date=2017-05-10|df=dmy-all|access-date=9 January 2015|archive-date=17 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160517080612/http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/atlantis-legendary-metal-found-in-shipwreck-150106.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.archaeology.org/news/2874-150107-sicily-orichalcum-metal|title=Unusual Metal Recovered from Ancient Greek Shipwreck – Archaeology Magazine|author=Jessica E. Saraceni|work=archaeology.org|date=7 January 2015 }}</ref>