Analysing silver from Phoenician hoards.
[sciencythoughts.blogspot.com]
From about 4000 BC onwards the use of silver became widespread in the ancient world. This was obtained by smelting lead-ores in a furnace, and then cupellatiting (oxidising) the resultant metal to separate silver and gold. Lead ores, generally galena (lead sulphate) and cerussite (lead carbonate), were typically mined by a deep pit method, digging vertically down to a seem then following it horizontally. Silver was important to many ancient peoples, among whom were the Phoenicians, who built city states such as Tyre, Sidon and Byblos, ‘Akko and Dor in Lebanon and on the northern shores of the southern Levant during the Iron Age, roughly from the eleventh century BC onwards, and who travelled widely on trading expeditions, bringing innovations such as the alphabet, murex-based purple dyeing and masterful craftsmanship to the western Mediterranean, where they established colonies in North Africa, Sardinia and Iberia. In the ninth century BC the Phoenicians began to exploit jarosite (potassium-iron sulphate) ores in Iberia, from which silver was also extracted as a biproduct.
13
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
1 comment
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I wonder why people discovered smelting. Why would anyone want to melt rocks or even think it was posible. I wonder if they were considered mad while they experimented with melting things or if happened gradually enough that it didn't seem odd at all melting rocks at 1000 degrees C.
Donna_I
Level 8
Jan 20, 2022
1
JoeB:
Ancient peoples cooked on rocks, made things on rocks, and heated rocks to help change their properties before making tools from them. The first metals were probably a surprise (and possibly a nasty one, since one of the easiest metals to get this way is arsenic), but once you've got the idea...
Recent Visitors 14
Photos 292 More
Posted by JoeBKite-like structures in the western Sahara Desert.
Posted by TriphidAn Aussie Indigenous Message Stick.
Posted by TriphidIndigenous Australian Aboriginal Rock art dated somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand years old.
Posted by TriphidIndigenous Australian Aboriginal Rock art dated somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand years old.
Posted by TriphidIndigenous Australian Aboriginal Rock art dated somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand years old.
Posted by TriphidIndigenous Australian Aboriginal Rock art dated somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand years old.
Posted by JoeBDortoka vremiri: A new species of Dortokid Turtle from the Late Cretaceous of the Hațeg Basin, Romania.
Posted by JoeBThe Cabeço da Amoreira burial: An Early Modern Era West African buried in a Mesolithic shell midden in Portugal.
Posted by JoeBMusivavis amabilis: A new species of Enantiornithine Bird from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota of northeastern China.
Posted by JoeBTorosaurus in Canada.
Posted by JoeBStone tools from the Borselan Rock Shelter, in the Binalud Mountains of northeastern Iran.
Posted by JoeBDating the Lantian Biota.
Posted by JoeBBashanosaurus primitivus: A new species of Stegosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Chongqing Municipality, China.
Posted by JoeBDetermining the time of year when the Chicxulub Impactor fell.
Posted by JoeBSão Tomé and Príncipe: Possibly the last country on Earth never to have been visited by a working archaeologist.
Posted by JoeBMambawakale ruhuhu: A new species of Pseudosuchian Archosaur from the Middle Triassic Manda Beds of Tanzania.