Dear reader,
Six months ago I wrote a very short overview about the History of Chemistry. This month I intend to write about the first history period related to chemistry, i.e., the ancient times that includes the period from prehistoric times to the beginning of the Christian era.
The start point of chemistry could be considered in “the use of fire, which originates with a chemical reaction. The Homo erectus is the first hominid that began to control it, about 400,000 years ago. However, new discoveries show that humans had the ability to control it about 1.7 million years ago, although there is a debate among scientists regarding these dates. On the other hand, the rock art of the first Homo sapiens. It also supposes a little knowledge of chemistry; the paintings required the mixing of animal blood with other liquids. Later man began to use metals. Small amounts of gold have been found in Spanish caves; these samples are about 40,000 years old, dating from the Paleolithic. ” (Smith)
Evidence for the “microscopic traces of wood ash” as controlled use of fire by Homo erectus, beginning roughly 1 million years ago, has wide scholarly support. Some of the earliest known traces of controlled fire were found at the Daughters of Jacob Bridge, Israel, and dated to ~790,000 years ago. At the site, archaeologists also found the oldest likely evidence of controlled use of fire to cook food ~780,000 years ago. (“Control of Fire by Early Humans.” )
Then mankind “discovered” the art of painting: “An ochre-rich mixture, possibly used for decoration, painting and skin protection 100,000 years ago, and stored in two abalone shells, was discovered at Blombos Cave near Cape Town, South Africa.” (University of the Witwatersrand)
It clearly indicates that our early humans had an elementary knowledge of chemistry. Paintings drawn by early humans consisting of early humans mixing animal blood with other liquids found on cave walls also indicate a small knowledge of chemistry. BTW, just for your knowledge: ochre is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. 😉
Then came one of the most precious metal: gold! ” Experts of fossil study have observed that bits of natural gold were found in Spanish caves used by the Paleolithic Man about 40,000 B.C. Consequently, it is not surprising that historical sources cannot agree on the precise date that gold was first used. One states that gold’s recorded discovery occurred circa 6000 B.C. Another mentions that the pharaohs and temple priests used the relic metal for adornment in ancient Egypt circa 3000 B.C.” (Vronsky) Also, silver, copper, tin and meteoric iron can also be found native, allowing a limited amount of metalworking in ancient cultures.
It is also worthwhile to mention here that during the Babylonian Empire (between 1894 B.C. and 539 B.C.), more specifically “during the government of King Hammurabi, a first list was drawn up with the classification of the heavy metals known for the time in conjunction with the celestial bodies.
During the Ancient Greece civilization (that flourished from the period following Mycenaean civilization, which ended about 1200 B.C., to the death of Alexander the Great, in 323 B.C.) three philosophers Thales of Miletus, Empedocles and Anaximander, already thought that the world was made up of certain types of earth, air, water, fire and other unknown resources. From 400 BC, other two philosophers Leucippus and Democritus proposed the existence of the atom, affirming that this was the fundamental and indivisible particle of matter, thus refuting that matter could be an infinitely divisible entity.
However, philosopher and polymath Aristotle continued the theory of the elements and apart he added the perspective that air, water, earth and fire, resulted from the combination of certain conditions such as heat, cold, humid and dry. Besides, Aristotle was also opposed to the indivisible particle version and believed that one element could be transformed into another depending on how its qualities were handled. ” (Smith)
Other very important timelines in the ancient times of the history of chemistry were the use of different metals in the Bronze and Iron Ages!
NOTE: This article describing the ancient times of chemistry history will be finished by the first week of March 2024!
Therefore dear reader, stay tuned because in the future I intend to write more articles describing various significant events in the history of chemistry. 😉
Best Regards from the Land of Seven Nobel Prizes in Chemistry,
Wilson
Words Cited
Smith, Tamara. “History of Chemistry: Historical Background from Prehistory.” Warbletoncouncil, warbletoncouncil.org, 28 Jan. 2021, http://warbletoncouncil.org/historia-quimica-10368.
“Control of Fire by Early Humans.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 May 2019, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_of_fire_by_early_humans. Accessed 30 Jan. 2024.
University of the Witwatersrand. “100,000-year-old ochre toolkit and workshop discovered in South Africa.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 October 2011. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111013141807.htm.
Vronsky, I. M. “History of Gold.” Gold-Eagle.com, Gold Eagle, 1 Jan. 1997, http://www.gold-eagle.com/article/history-gold. Accessed 30 Jan. 2024.
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