Pewter Pewter Pewter () is a malleable metal alloy. It is traditionally composed of 85–99% tin, mixed with copper, antimony, bismuth, and sometimes silver or lead, although the use of lead is less common today. Copper and antimony act as hardeners while lead is more common in the lower grades of pewter, which have a bluish tint. Pewter has a low melting point, around , depending on the exact mixture of metals. The word "pewter" is probably a variation of the word "spelter", a term for zinc alloys (originally a colloquial name for zinc). Pewter was first used around the beginning
Ancient Greek funerary vases East. Images from vases can provide information about religion, beliefs, and how people lived, including burial rites. Burial customs included washing and dressing the body in ointments before wrapping the body in a shroud and outer cloth. The body would then be laid upon a bier, or funeral bed, which gives form to the Greeks' association between sleep and death. Thanatos, the god of gentle death, can be seen on Greek funerary vases taking away the body of the deceased to the underworld. The act of laying out the body for mourners to see, called prothesis, is painted on the