Secrets of the God Makers: Re-Thinking the Origins of Greco-Egyptian Alchemy

Abstract:The earliest alchemical texts have an Egyptian provenance and date to the Roman period. Surprisingly little attention is given to the socio-cultural contexts of the craftsmen who produced them. This paper argues that alchemy originated in the Egyptian priesthood among temple metallurgists who were responsible for making cultic objects. Access to metallurgical recipes was restricted, but with the rise of trade guilds in the Roman period, craft secrets began to circulate more freely. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that these economic shifts are the best explanation for the emergence of alchemical texts in Roman Egypt.