Metals and Cosmetics at Ur.—The authorities of the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania have called in the services of a scientific expert, Dr. A. Kenneth Graham, of the Towns Scientific School of the University, to examine and deal with the finds which have been received as their portion of the antiquities obtained by the expedition working at Ur. Notes on some of the technological and chemical results of Dr. Graham's work are published in the Museums Journal (Philadelphia) for Sept.–Dec. 1929. While the early bronzes are of a composition and quality that have never been surpassed, the silver and gold are not of a purity that modern methods permit. Their workmanship, especially of the silver objects, is such as to command admiration. Some of the objects, indeed, it would be an achievement for a modern silversmith to produce. One silver bowl, for example, was first cut from a sheet of silver alloy cast in convenient form. In hammering it into the finished shape, at least three to five annealings would be required. Microscopic examination of the silver objects shows that the structure is similar to that of a modern silver article—that of an annealed metal with numerous twinnings indicating previous working by casting and then alternately annealing and hammering. A chemical examination of the cosmetics used by Queen Shubad shows that both eyebrow and lip paint contained a large and dangerous quantity of lead. One sample of the light blue clay contains large quantities of aluminium, phosphate, copper, lead, and carbonate, with traces of iron, calcium, and silica. Probably it is powdered turquoise. A black powder similar to antimony or ‘kohl’ contains a large amount of manganese and lead with a small quantity of copper, aluminium, phosphate, carbonate, silica, and iron. The last six were evidently present as turquoise. The black colour was due to the manganese, the black oxide of which occurs naturally as pyrolusite. The lead and carbonate must have been added intentionally. The oxides of lead when mixed with the above minerals give shades of brown, red, and purple, and it is probable that in early times a greater variety of colours was preferred to the red and black of to-day.