Metals and Related Minerals and Ores

Although there are 70 metallic chemical elements, only 8 (gold, copper, lead, iron, silver, tin, arsenic and mercury) were recognized and used in their metallic state before the eighteenth century CE. Only two – gold and copper – were sufficiently available in their uncombined native state to be of importance to ancient societies. In the Old World, gold and copper metallurgy originated in the Near East more than 7000 years ago. The first uncontested use of metallic copper dates to the late eighth millennium BCE at an aceramic Neolithic site in southeastern Turkey where beads made of native copper have been found. The name copper is derived from the Greek name of Cyprus [Kyprios]. In the last few decades, individuals and teams from many countries have begun to locate ancient mines of the Old World (e.g., Wagner et al. 1983, 1984; Gerwien 1984).