might live in such a house. Some of them learned the builder's trade
and were able to lay stones in mortar and to use saws and axes and
nails and other tools for woodwork. Yet when David built his palace,
he had to send to Tyre for skilled masons. Evidently in his day the
Hebrews had not progressed very far in the manual training department
of their new school.


OTHER VILLAGE ARTS AND CRAFTS

Many trades, which with us are carried on in separate shops, were a
part of the household work among the ancient Hebrews: for example,
spinning and weaving and the making of baskets, of shoes, girdles,
and other articles of skin or leather. We will study some of these
household activities in another chapter. Other trades, however, even
in the early days, were carried on by special artisans who worked at
nothing else.

=Trained artisans.=--Metal workers, for example, formed a special
trade. Among the excavations of ancient Canaanite cities have been
found the ruins of a blacksmith shop. When the Hebrews entered Canaan
no one had as yet learned the art of working in iron and steel by
means of a forge with a forced draft. All tools and metal implements,
such as plowshares, knives, axes, saws, and so on, were made of
bronze, which consists of copper mixed and hardened with tin. The
blacksmith melted the metals in a very simple and rough furnace of
clay heated by charcoal. The bronze itself, although harder than
copper, could be worked into the desired shape by hammering and
filing, without the use of heat. We who are used to our sharp, finely
tempered tools of steel would certainly have found these clumsy bronze