“Seven metals were created by light according to the number of seven planets” - these simple verses contained one of the most important postulates medieval alchemy. In ancient times and in the Middle Ages, only seven metals and the same number of celestial bodies were known (the Sun, the Moon and five planets, not counting the Earth). According to the luminaries of science of that time, only fools and ignoramuses could fail to see the deepest philosophical pattern in this. The harmonious alchemical theory stated that gold is represented in the heavens by the Sun, silver is the typical Moon, copper is undoubtedly related to Venus, iron is personified by Mars, mercury corresponds to Mercury, tin to Jupiter, lead to Saturn. Until the 17th century, metals were designated in literature by corresponding symbols.

Figure 1 - Alchemical signs of metals and planets

Currently, more than 80 metals are known, most of which are used in technology.

Since 1814, at the suggestion of a Swedish chemist Berzelius Letters are used to designate metals.

The first metal that man learned to process was gold. The most ancient things made of this metal were made in Egypt approximately 8 thousand years ago. In Europe, 6 thousand years ago, they were the first to start making gold and bronze Jewelry and weapons Thracians, who lived in the territory from the Danube to the Dnieper.

Historians distinguish three stages in the development of mankind: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.

In 3 thousand BC. people began to widely use metals in their economic activities. The transition from stone tools to metal ones was of enormous importance in the history of mankind. Perhaps no other discovery has led to such significant social changes.

The first metal to become widespread was copper (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - Schematic map of the territorial and chronological distribution of metals in Eurasia and North Africa

The map clearly shows the location of the oldest finds of metal products. Almost all known artifacts dating back to the period from the end of the 9th to the 6th millennium BC. (i.e. before Mesopotamia culture of the Uruk type spread widely), come from only three dozen monuments scattered over a vast territory of 1 million km 2. About 230 small samples were recovered from here, 2/3 of them belong to two pre-ceramic Neolithic settlements - Chayonu and Ashikli.

Constantly looking for the stones they needed, our ancestors, presumably, already in ancient times paid attention to reddish-green or greenish-gray pieces of native copper. In the cliffs of the banks and rocks they came across copper pyrites, copper glitter and red copper ore (cuprite). At first, people used them as ordinary stones and processed them accordingly. They soon discovered that when copper was treated with blows from a stone hammer, its hardness increased significantly, and it became suitable for making tools. Thus, the techniques of cold metal working or primitive forging came into use.

Then another important discovery was made - a piece of native copper or surface rock containing metal, falling into the fire of a fire, revealed new features not characteristic of stone: from strong heating the metal melted and, cooling, acquired a new shape. If the mold was made artificially, then the product a person needed was obtained. Ancient craftsmen used this property of copper first for casting jewelry, and then for the production of copper tools. This is how metallurgy was born. Melting began to be carried out in special high-temperature furnaces, which were a slightly modified design of pottery furnaces well known to people (Figure 3).

Figure 3 - Melting metal in Ancient Egypt(the blast is supplied by furs made from animal skins)

In southeastern Anatolia, archaeologists have discovered a very ancient pre-ceramic settlement Neolithic Chayonya Tepesi (Figure 4), which amazed with the unexpected complexity of stone architecture. Among the ruins, scientists discovered about a hundred small pieces of copper, as well as many fragments of the copper mineral malachite, some of which were processed into beads.

Figure 4 - Çayonü Tepesi settlement in Eastern Anatolia: IX-VIII millennium BC. The oldest metal on the planet was discovered here

Generally speaking, copper is a soft metal, much less hard than stone. But copper tools could be sharpened quickly and easily. (According to the observations of S.A. Semenov, when replacing a stone ax with a copper one, the cutting speed increased approximately three times.) The demand for metal tools began to grow rapidly.

People began a real “hunt” for copper ore. It turned out that it is not found everywhere. In those places where rich deposits of copper were discovered, their intensive development arose, ore and mining appeared. As the discoveries of archaeologists show, already in ancient times the process of ore mining was carried out on a large scale. For example, near Salzburg, where copper mining began around 1600 BC, the mines reached a depth of 100 m, and the total length of the drifts extending from each mine was several kilometers.

Ancient miners had to solve all the problems that modern miners face: strengthening vaults, ventilation, lighting, climbing the mountain of mined ore. The adits were reinforced with wooden supports. The mined ore was smelted nearby in low, thick-walled clay furnaces. Similar metallurgy centers existed in other places (Figures 5,6).

Figure 5 - Ancient mines

Figure 6 - Tools of ancient miners

At the end of 3 thousand BC. ancient masters began to use the properties of alloys, the first of which was bronze. The discovery of bronze must have been prompted by an accident inevitable during the mass production of copper. Some varieties of copper ores contain an insignificant (up to 2%) admixture of tin. While smelting such ore, the craftsmen noticed that the copper obtained from it was much harder than usual. Tin ore could have entered the copper smelting furnaces for another reason. Be that as it may, observations of the properties of ores led to the development of the value of tin, which began to be added to copper, forming an artificial alloy - bronze. When heated with tin, copper melted better and was easier to cast, as it became more fluid. Bronze instruments were harder than copper ones and sharpened well and easily. Bronze metallurgy has made it possible to increase labor productivity several times in all sectors of human activity (Figure 7).

The production of tools itself became much simpler: instead of long and hard work beating and polishing stone, people filled ready-made forms with liquid metal and obtained results that their predecessors had never dreamed of. Casting techniques were gradually improved. At first, casting was done in open clay or sand molds, which were simply a depression. They were replaced by open forms carved from stone that could be used repeatedly. However, the big disadvantage of open molds was that they only produced flat products. They were not suitable for casting products of complex shapes. A solution was found when closed split molds were invented. Before casting, the two halves of the mold were firmly connected to each other. Molten bronze was then poured through the hole. When the metal cooled and hardened, the mold was disassembled and the finished product was obtained.

Figure 7 - Bronze tools

This method made it possible to cast products of complex shapes, but it was not suitable for figure casting. But this difficulty was overcome when the closed form was invented. With this method of casting, an exact model of the future product was first molded from wax. Then it was coated with clay and fired in a kiln.

The wax melted and evaporated, and the clay took an exact cast of the model. Bronze was poured into the void thus formed. When it cooled down, the mold was broken. Thanks to all these operations, craftsmen were able to cast even hollow objects of very complex shapes. Gradually, new technical techniques for working with metals were discovered, such as drawing, riveting, soldering and welding, complementing the already known forging and casting (Figure 8).

Figure 8 - Golden hat of a Celtic priest

Perhaps the largest metal casting ever made to Japanese masters. This was 1200 years ago. It weighs 437 tons and represents Buddha in a pose of peace. The height of the sculpture together with the pedestal is 22 m. The length of one arm is 5 m. Four people could dance freely on an open palm. Let us add that the famous ancient Greek statue - the Colossus of Rhodes - 36 m high, weighed 12 tons. It was cast in the 3rd century. BC e.

With the development of metallurgy, bronze products began to replace stone ones everywhere. But don't think that this happened very quickly. Non-ferrous metal ores were not available everywhere. Moreover, tin was much less common than copper. Metals had to be transported over long distances. The cost of metal tools remained high. All this prevented their wide distribution. Bronze could not completely replace stone tools. Only iron could do this.

In addition to copper and bronze, other metals were also widely used.

The oldest items made of lead are considered to be the beads and pendants found in Asia Minor during the excavations at Çatalhöyük and the seals and figurines discovered in Yarym Tepe (Northern Mesopotamia). These finds date back to the 6th millennium BC. The first iron rarities date back to the same time, representing small krits found in Çatalhöyük. Elders silver products found in Iran and Anatolia. In Iran, they were found in the town of Tepe-Sialk: these are buttons dating back to the beginning of the 5th millennium BC. Found in Anatolia, in Beyjesultan silver ring, dating from the end of the same millennium.

In prehistoric times, gold was obtained from placers by panning. It came out in the form of sand and nuggets. Then they began to use gold refining (removing impurities, separating silver), in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. In the 13th-14th centuries they learned to use nitric acid to separate gold and silver. And in the 19th century, the amalgamation process was developed (although it was known in ancient times, there is no evidence that it was used to extract gold from sands and ores).

Silver was mined from galena, along with lead. Then, centuries later, they began to be smelted together (around the 3rd millennium BC in Asia Minor), and this became widespread another 1500-2000 years later.

Around 640 BC e. began minting coins in Asia Minor, and around 575 BC. e. - in Athens. In fact, this is the beginning of stamping production.

Once upon a time, tin was smelted in simple shaft furnaces, after which it was purified using special oxidative processes. Now in metallurgy, tin is obtained by processing ores according to complex integrated schemes.

Well, mercury was produced by roasting ore in heaps, during which it condensed on cold objects. Then ceramic vessels (retorts) appeared, which were replaced by iron ones. And with the growing demand for mercury, they began to produce it in special furnaces.

Iron was known in China as early as 2357 BC. e., and in Egypt - in 2800 BC. e., although back in 1600 BC. e. iron was looked at as a curiosity. The Iron Age in Europe began approximately 1000 BC. e., when the art of iron smelting penetrated into the Mediterranean states from the Scythians of the Black Sea region.

The use of iron began much earlier than its production. Sometimes pieces of greyish-black metal were found which, when forged into a dagger or spearhead, produced a weapon stronger and more ductile than bronze and held a sharp edge longer. The difficulty was that this metal was found only by accident. Now we can say that it was meteorite iron. Since iron meteorites are an iron-nickel alloy, it can be assumed that the quality of individual unique daggers, for example, could compete with modern consumer goods. However, the same uniqueness led to the fact that such weapons ended up not on the battlefield, but in the treasury of the next ruler.

Iron tools decisively expanded the practical capabilities of man. It became possible, for example, to build houses cut from logs - after all, an iron ax felled a tree not three times faster than a copper one, but 10 times faster than a stone one. Construction from cut stone has also become widespread. Naturally, it was also used in the Bronze Age, but the high consumption of relatively soft and expensive metal decisively limited such experiments. The opportunities for farmers have also expanded significantly.

The peoples of Anatolia were the first to learn how to process iron. The ancient Greek tradition considered the Khalib people to be the discoverer of iron, for whom the stable expression “father of iron” was used in literature, and the very name of the people comes precisely from Greek wordΧ?λυβας (“iron”).

The “Iron Revolution” began at the turn of the 1st millennium BC. e. in Assyria. From the 8th century BC. e wrought iron quickly began to spread in Europe in the 3rd century BC. e. replaced bronze in Gaul, appeared in Germany in the 2nd century AD, and in the 6th century AD it was already widely used in Scandinavia and among tribes living in the territory of future Rus'. In Japan, the Iron Age did not begin until the 8th century AD.

At first, only small quantities of iron were obtained, and for several centuries it sometimes cost forty times more than silver. The iron trade restored Assyria's prosperity. The way was opened for new conquests (Figure 9).

Figure 9 - Furnace for smelting iron among the ancient Persians

Metallurgists were able to see liquid iron only in the 19th century, however, even at the dawn of iron metallurgy - at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC - Indian craftsmen were able to solve the problem of producing elastic steel without melting iron. This steel was called damask steel, but due to the complexity of manufacturing and the lack necessary materials In most of the world, this steel remained an Indian secret for a long time.

A more technologically advanced way to produce elastic steel, which did not require particularly pure ore, graphite, or special furnaces, was found in China in the 2nd century AD. The steel was forged many times, with each forging the workpiece was folded in half, resulting in an excellent weapon material called Damascus, from which, in particular, the famous Japanese katanas were made.

Seven “prehistoric metals” Author: Kozhina A. Teacher: Kudryavtseva N.V. Stone Age Copper Age Bronze Age Iron Age Already in ancient times, seven metals were known to man: gold, copper, silver, tin, lead, iron, mercury. These metals can be called “prehistoric”, since they were used by man even before the invention of writing. The clock of human history began to count down time faster when metals entered his life and, most importantly, their “Contents” 1. “The King of Metals” 2. “Some Light Heavy Stones” 3. “Silver in Medicine” 4. “Living Silver” 5. “Iron” 6. “Copper” 7. “Tin” 8. “Lead” “King of Metals” “Oh, if only it could be completely banished from life!” Pliny the Elder Its flickering shine aroused human greed, attracted countless adventurers into the distance, and became the cause of bloody wars. Even in ancient times, the golden color of the metal was associated in people's minds with the color of the sun. So, according to one version, the Russian name of the metal comes from the word “sun”. The Latin name (AURUM) translated as “yellow” “The Alchemist’s Dream” Gold, which does not change when stored in air, does not rust, was a symbol of eternity. In nature, gold occurs in the form of small grains mixed with sand. But sometimes large nuggets are also found - weighing several tens of kilograms. Nowadays, about half of the gold produced is used in jewelry. Jewelers never work with pure metal.: from yellow and red-brown to pinkish or even greenish. “SOME HEAVY AND LIGHT STONES...” The oldest Latin name for silver is (a r g e n t u m) “white”, “shiny”. The Russian word “silver” comes from the word “sickle” of the moon. Coins were minted from silver - humanity has long assigned these metals the role of measuring the value of goods. The ancient Romans began minting silver coins from 269 BC – on Silver - shiny, silvery half a century earlier than gold. - white metal (tm = 962 ° C), malleable and ductile, the best conductor of heat and electricity among metals. In the old days, it was used to make coins, vases, cups, , the thinnest silver plates decorated caskets and robes. In Rus', church vessels and icon frames were made from silver. SILVER IN MEDICINE Silver has been used for the treatment of various diseases since ancient times. Nowadays, silver nitrate is used in medical practice, in which this metal is in solution in the form of tiny solid particles. To prevent it from precipitating, special stabilizing additives are introduced into it. The use of silver nitrate is due to its antimicrobial activity. In small concentrations the drug has an anti-inflammatory effect, and in stronger solutions it burns tissue. Most often, silver nitrate in the form of aqueous solutions is used externally to treat eye diseases. An alloy of one part silver nitrate and two parts potassium nitrate called “lapis” is used for external cauterization. “LIVING SILVER” Mercury - argentum vivum (living silver) hydrar-girum (“liquid silver”) Mercury was known to people already in the 2nd millennium BC. e. Alchemists considered her to be the feminine principle of substances, the mother of metals, and the basis of the philosopher's stone. Colorized engraving. XVII century c o g d a t o Iron ingots. “IRON” Freely convertible currency is not at all a sign of our time. But we can only imagine that iron was once the universal measure of values. Meanwhile, in the time of Homer, “some bought things with ox skins, others with iron and prisoners. Oh, one part of iron was equal to ten parts of gold. Firstly, it was the strongest metal known at that time, indispensable in the manufacture of weapons and tools. o g e m The second reason is the difficulty of iron extraction. c (In the old days, iron was obtained by the “cheese-furnace” method. Iron ore and coal were loaded into furnaces that had the shape of a long pipe. The coal was fired, and the wind blowing into the pipe maintained the high temperature l (about 1400 ° C) necessary for recovery of iron from oxide ore. The resulting metal (crip) was forged, and during the forging process pure iron was separated from it. In some countries, these pieces of slag remained, and “Copper” remained. The Latin name for copper - Cuprum - comes from the name of the island of Cyprus. where copper mines existed already in the 3rd century BC. The Russian “copper” goes back to the word “smida”, which meant metal among the ancient Germans. Although copper is sometimes found in nature in the form of nuggets (the largest one found weighed 420 tons). , its main part is part of sulfide ores. In the first metallurgical processes, not sulfide ores were used, but malachite, which does not require pre-firing “Tin”. It has been known to mankind at least since the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. ) “Tin” A strong reducing agent.. About 60% of all tin produced are alloys. jewelry cans

for storing canned food they are also covered with a layer of tin. “Lead” Lead nuggets are extremely rare in nature. (However, in the form of a compound with sulfur - lead luster, lead was already known to ancient craftsmen. Beautiful, shiny crystals of this substance attracted attention. If you put them in a fire made in a shallow pit, molten metal will soon flow down to the bottom of it, because the melting point of lead low - 327 ° C.) It is interesting that today the industrial production of lead is based on the same chemical reactions - calcination of lead luster in air.
There are many borrowed names for metals in the Russian language: zinc, platinum, molybdenum, etc. This happened because it was not the Russians who discovered them - the Russians learned about them from others.
There is a metal with an “international” name: gold. It is international because they learned about gold a very long time ago and its similar names spread among many tribes, including the “non-Indo-Europeans” - the ancestors of the Finns (kulta), Mongols (altn) and, possibly, Arabs (zahab).

There are metals whose related names are used only in Baltic, Germanic and Slavic languages: copper (only in Slavic), iron, tin and lead (in Baltic and Slavic, and among the Western and Southern Slavs the word “tin” means lead), silver (in all languages ​​mentioned).
Attention is drawn to the fact that metals that were previously discovered by man - copper, iron, tin, lead, mercury - have Slavic names in Slavic languages.

For comparison: the Celts had their own name for iron - the Celts began the Iron Age in Europe, which began with the development of iron in Transcaucasia in the 11th - 10th centuries BC. In the Germanic group of languages, the names of iron and lead were borrowed from the Celts, copper - from the Latins (from the name of Cyprus, from where the Latins received copper). That is, the Germans learned about these metals from others. I would venture to suggest that all the peoples whose names of metals in ancient times have an etymology within their native language discovered these metals themselves. That is, the Proto-Slavs discovered copper for themselves and named it with this word themselves, for even in the close Baltic languages ​​copper is called differently and also not in the same way as in others. The most logical assumption: the ancestors of the Slavs and the ancestors of the Balts mastered copper metallurgy independently of each other and from other peoples. If so, then this happened long before the contacts of the northerners with the southern civilizations, which began the Copper Age much earlier and from which the Proto-Balto-Slavs in this case would have borrowed the name. Just as the Germans adopted the name iron from the Celts. That is, in the third millennium BC, the ancestors of the Slavs were already familiar with at least native copper (more about this in the essay “COPPER as a witness to ancient history”).

Iron in northern Europe was mined from iron oxides in the swamp area, of which there were many: “Danish bog iron” is widely known. Above I gave authoritative versions of the etymology of the word “iron”, but I myself think that it comes from Yellow color goethite, the main component of bog ore. By the way, the Balts also have native iron, apparently: lit. gelezis, lts. dzelzs - respectively from lit. geltas, lts. dze,lts "yellow". The suffix “-ez-” is not a frequent phenomenon, but it does occur: in addition to “gland” and “iron,” there is “well,” “disease,” and “drake,” perhaps.

Words related to the word "mercury" are used in Czech, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian. In many other European languages, including Albanian, South Slavic, Lithuanian and Latvian, the ancient names for mercury are translated as “living” or “living (fast) silver.” An ancient deposit of cinnabar - mercury ore - was discovered in Ukraine (and the most powerful of the European ones - in Spain). Cinnabar easily decomposes when exposed to strong heat, releasing mercury vapor and depositing it on nearby cold surfaces, so mercury was most likely discovered by accident and could have been discovered by the Proto-Slavs independently.

There are tin deposits in the Czech Ore Mountains; these deposits were mined already in the 2nd millennium BC. Since neither the Celtic, nor the Germanic, nor the Italic tribes could have anything to do with these deposits in those days, it means that the ancestors of the Balts and Slavs - the peoples of the Trzyniec and Lusatian archaeological cultures - were engaged in tin mining in these places. These peoples must have had names for tin that were not associated with the languages ​​of the southern peoples. But in dictionaries there is a statement that the words of the Balts and Slavs with the meaning “tin” come from the names of yellow and white flowers among the Germans, Latins and Greeks, I quote M. Vasmer: “Elo “yellow”, Latin albus “white”, Greek alfos.”

We emphasize that the word “tin”, which has relatives only in the Baltic and Slavic languages ​​(in relation to the metal tin - only in the East Slavic languages), cannot in any way come from the Germanic, Greek or Latin words meaning yellow and White color. Firstly, no one spoke these words in these places in the second millennium BC. Secondly, those who said such words somewhere, themselves named tin without referring to the names of these colors in their languages: in Latin “tin” - “stannum”, in German - “Zinn”, in English - "tin", in Greek - "kassiteros". Thirdly, even if the word “albus” (“white”, Latin) had been spoken by someone in these places, then the Western Slavs - the Slavs closest to the Latins - would not have called blue a word derived from "albus". - gray lead.

The English etymological dictionary does not know the source of the Germanic words for tin. Perhaps the Germans borrowed it from the Celts: in Cymric “tin” - “tun”, in Cornish - “stean”. Cornwall was the main supplier of tin in Western Europe, even the Phoenicians went to the British Isles for tin in the early 1st millennium BC. But maybe the Celtic words with the meaning “tin” are from the Latins: in Irish “tin” is “sta”in”, clearly close to the Latin “stannum” (“tin”), previously “stagnum”, which, according to ironically, until the 4th century BC it was called an alloy of lead and silver for its durability. How confusing it is! But the origin of the word “tin” has nothing to do with this confusion: it was invented by the Proto-Slavs.

"Lead" in German is "Blei", in Swedish - "bly", these words are possibly related to "blau"/"bl(ao) - "blue", in the same languages. Then this name will turn out to be a parallel ("tracing paper") to the East Slavic name, on the assumption that lead is "sinets-sivenets". In any case, "Blei" is not a common Germanic word (for example, in English and Frisian "lead" is "lead". , borrowed from the Celts), that is, the Germanic tribes became acquainted with lead relatively late and in different circumstances. Let me remind you that the Irish “luaide”, to which the English name for lead is reduced, does not itself have official ancestors. I suggested a connection in one of my recent essays. Irish word with Lithuanian "lydyti" ("melt") and Russian "luda" ("alloy of lead and tin for tin plating"). If I am right, then Balto-Slavic words again receive priority in the field of lead metallurgy in northern Europe.

The Western Slavs seem to have adopted at a later time the Germanic name for tin, together with the Germanic expression of gratitude (cf. German "Danke", English "thank" and Polish "dzi(en)kuje"): in Czech "tin" - "cin", in Polish - "cyna", - and a word related to the word "tin" was used by the Czechs and Poles to call lead. In this example, it is clearly visible that to name tin, the Slavs (Western) did not borrow the distant “albus”, but the nearby “Zinn”.
By the way, why did the Western Slavs call lead tin? And because both of these metals, lead and tin, are fusible, both of them can be cast by melting in the flame of a fire.
Albanians, Macedonians and Bulgarians, finding themselves at a crossroads and far from tin deposits, eventually used the Turkic name for tin - “kalay”, and also called lead by a word related to the word “tin”.
However, the matter did not end with the confusion of tin and lead. In the Middle Ages, the metal "calaem" was exported from India, which in some texts is actually called tin, and in others - zinc. This time. There is also an opinion that the name of zinc “Zink” comes from the German name for tin “Zinn”. That's two.

I can’t say with certainty about the etymology of the word “lead” - it could, for example, be called by color (as mentioned above): “sinets”, “sivenets” - or by heaviness (or “dirtyness”), in comparison with pigs: “pig " - lead ingot; similarly, “pig” (also a designation for a pig) is an ingot of cast iron (originally “pig”, dirty iron). Since lead stains, signs of "dirty" and color seem like better candidates. There is such a tracing paper: in Ancient Greece lead was called "molybdos", which sounds similar to "molyno" ("to dirty"). Because of this property, lead was used to make writing rods. Lead has been known since time immemorial in Mesopotamia and Egypt, but there are also deposits of lead in what is now Germany and Poland, so the pre-Balto-Slavs could have discovered lead on their own using the thermal decomposition of ore - most likely by accident, like mercury.

In addition to the question of the etymology of the word “lead,” the question of the etymology of the word “silver” also remains difficult. Considering that the richest silver deposits in Europe are located on the territory of modern Poland and Germany, where, among others, the tribes of the Lusatian Serbs lived, one cannot rule out the assumption that silver is the “metal of the Serbs” (like copper - cuprum - the metal of the Cypriots), so Moreover, the first “e” in both words was fluent: “serebro” and “srb”. Then the Lithuanian "sidabro" and the Gothic "silubr" will turn out to be borrowings with distortions. Or maybe the Lithuanian word is related to the Latin “sidereus” (“starry, brilliant”)? In this case, it would turn out that the Slavs and Germans borrowed their names for silver. However, the Latins have a foreign word for silver, although it is also associated with brilliance, but borrowed from the Greeks (argos -> argentum), and the Spaniards have a completely different word: in both cases the silver was probably from other sources, not from the Serbs.

Finally, a semi-fantastic version: “silver” is connected with the unregistered “*sereba”, just as “good” is connected with “doba”. The word formation “*sereba” has the suffix “-eb-(-ьб-)”, as in “tugging”, “foaling”, “fate”, and can be formed from “gray” or something similar in sound. Here, at the same time, “earring” can receive a Slavic registration: from the root “ser”, and with the Slavic ending in “-ga”, as in “veriga”. Vasmer would be against “gray,” pointing out that Western Slavic words with the meaning “gray” phonetically begin with “sh,” and silver in the same languages ​​begins with “s.”

Main conclusions from the investigation.

1. The habitat of the ancestors of the Slavs in the 2nd millennium BC included ancient deposits of copper, tin, lead, silver and bog iron in northern Europe: in the territories of modern Germany, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Poland, Belarus, the Carpathian region and the northeastern part Russia.

2. Judging by the words with the meaning “mercury” and related to the word “mercury” only in the Belarusian, Ukrainian, Russian, Czech and Polish languages, the area of ​​the ancestors of the Eastern Slavs included the Carpathian region and captured ancient mercury deposits in the territory of the present Donetsk region. Names of mercury in the languages ​​of peoples familiar with Iberian mercury, including others Slavic peoples, the word “mercury” is not related and in meaning corresponds to the word/phrase “living/living silver”, widespread from Spain to the Balkans.

3. West Slavic words with the meaning “tin”, borrowed from the Germans, suggest when and how the division of the Slavs into Western and Eastern could have occurred: the Western Slavs from the 5th century BC began to be strongly influenced by the Celts-Britons and Germans (and through them - influence of the Romans), and the eastern ones have long been under pressure from their eastern neighbors. The field of dialects began to change in accordance with these circumstances.

4. In those distant times, the Germanic tribes did not reach the mercury deposits on the current Ukrainian territory, which preserved the original Slavic word “mercury” in the East Slavic languages, as well as among the Western Slavs closest to the Carpathians - Czechs and Poles. And in the Germanic group of languages ​​(and in many other European languages), already in historical times, a tracing paper was formed to denote mercury from the Spanish “argento vivo” (“living silver”) - German. "Quecksilber", English. "quicksilver", Swedish. "kvicksilver" etc.

The position of ore deposits does not depend on climate, wars, etc., therefore the names of the metals mined in them can serve as a more reliable marker of the habitats of the peoples who came up with these names than the names of plants, animals, etc.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that metals are present in any sphere of human activity. They are everywhere. Cutlery, many tools, cars, railways- all these are achievements of mankind that were achieved thanks to metals and their alloys. Metals have been used for many thousands of years, and since ancient times those who knew how to handle metal and make various tools from it were valued.

As evidence, I would like to cite one parable that tells about the real importance of persons who “own” metal:

Upon completion of the construction of the Jerusalem Temple, King Solomon decided to glorify the best builders and invited them to the palace. He even gave up his royal throne for the duration of the feast to the best of the best - the one who did especially a lot for the construction of the temple.

When the invitees arrived at the palace, one of them quickly ascended the steps of the golden throne and sat down on it. His action caused amazement to those present.

Who are you and by what right did you take this place? - the angry king asked menacingly.

The stranger turned to the mason and asked him:

Who made your instruments?

Blacksmith - he answered.

The man sitting turned to the carpenter, joiner:

Who made your instruments?

“Blacksmith,” they answered.

And everyone to whom the stranger addressed answered:

Yes, the blacksmith forged our tools with which the temple was built.

Then the stranger said to the king:

I'm a blacksmith. King, you see, none of them could do their work without the iron tools I made. This place rightfully belongs to me.

Convinced by the blacksmith’s arguments, the king said to those present:

Yes, the blacksmith is right. He deserves the greatest honor among the builders of the temple...

In ancient times The blacksmith's activity was not only metal processing. The work of a blacksmith included the entire chain from ore mining to finished product creation. And this implied the presence of enormous knowledge and skills. Therefore, the profession of a blacksmith has always been held in high esteem. And even one of the Finnish proverbs notes that you are not supposed to speak to a blacksmith on a first-name basis. Blacksmithing knowledge was most often passed on from generation to generation. And in many historical films you can see the blacksmith’s father and children scurrying around the father, wanting to try themselves in business.

Great philosopher of Ancient Rome Titus Lucretius Carus in the 1st century BC wrote:

“Formerly, powerful hands, claws, teeth, stones, fragments of tree branches and flames served as weapons, after the latter became known to people. After that, copper and a type of iron were found. Still, copper came into use before iron. Since it was softer, and much more abundant, the soil was plowed with a copper tool, and the copper brought the battle into confusion, scattering severe wounds everywhere. Livestock and fields were stolen with the help of copper, because everything unarmed and naked obeyed the weapon little by little. to forge iron. The sight of weapons from copper began to arouse contempt in people. At this time, they began to cultivate the land with iron, and in a war with an unknown outcome, they began to equalize their strength."

This scripture clearly shows us the division of all human history into periods: the Stone, Copper and Iron Ages. In the first half of the 19th century, scientists K. Thomsen and E. Vorso added one more item to this list. As a result, we see what many have known since school:

STONE AGE

COPPER AGE

BRONZE AGE

IRON AGE

A time when a person used what was at hand in his activities. Stones, bones, wood and other materials provided by nature were used. Over time, man learned to process these tools. As a result, their useful property. The stones were of greatest importance. The person immediately realized how useful they were. If at first the stones were used in their usual form, then gradually people learned to chip them, thereby improving the efficiency of this tool. And after some time, the stones began to be drilled, ground and polished, giving them additional advantages. Without exaggeration, stone has played one of the most important roles in the everyday life of mankind for hundreds of years.

covers approximately the period from IV to III millennium BC. At this time, the active use of copper begins. In the book by R. Malinova and Y. Malin "A Leap into the Past: An Experiment Reveals the Mysteries of Ancient Eras" it is suggested that copper accidentally fell into the hands of a person along with the stones that he used. Since copper and gold are found in nature in native form more often than, for example, silver and especially iron, then the first metals with which man became acquainted were copper and gold. It was from them that our ancestors began to make jewelry and various tools. The first copper products were made using ordinary blows. But these objects were soft and fragile, so they quickly broke and became dull. A lot of time has passed, but our ancestors found out that when exposed to high temperatures, copper begins to melt and turns into a fluid substance that can take any shape. Having got the hang of it, man was able to create really sharp tools suitable for sharpening. And even if the tool broke, nothing prevented it from being melted down into a new object. The first experiments with copper served as the beginning for the development of metallurgy and blacksmithing. Thousands of years later, man began to use not only pure metals, but also metal-containing ores. Scientists still cannot answer the question of how man came to begin extracting metals from ore stones. All you can hear around is speculation. However, this made it possible to increase the productivity of metal products.

Continuing to experiment, our ancestors invented closed oven. And to increase the temperature inside the furnace, they came up with a system for supplying the oxygen necessary for this. Initially it was a natural air flow, but over time it was developed artificial air system. For the same purposes it began to be used charcoal, which has huge calorific value.

At one point, the experiments of our ancestors made it possible to obtain a new metal. An alloy of copper and tin made it possible to create bronze. This marked the beginning of a new era - Bronze Age. According to scientists, bronze became known to mankind in 3500 BC Our ancestors obtained tin by smelting it from stone - cassiterite. Tin its properties are soft and fragile, but in combination with copper, the result is a metal much harder than copper. Having arrived at more advanced knowledge in the field of metallurgy, our ancestors began to make tools from bronze. This made it possible to make another push forward in the development of humanity.

And at some point man began to use iron. Its active use in metallurgy began approximately from 1200 BC e. before 340 AD e. The reasons that led to such a late development of this metal are as follows. Firstly, The melting point of iron is quite high, and it was impossible to achieve such degrees in old metallurgical furnaces. The second reason, and perhaps the most important one, is that iron itself is not such a hard metal. Only when man experimentally reached the “alloy” of iron and carbon did the active use of iron in the manufacture of tools begin, because exactly this connection made it possible to give iron competitive hardness.

The most ancient method of obtaining iron is considered cheese-making process. When iron was obtained from ore in small furnaces, created at first in the ground. This method is called cheese-making due to the fact that air was supplied to the furnace through blowing in cold “damp” atmospheric air. This process did not allow achieving
the melting temperature of iron is 1537 degrees, and was kept at the maximum level 1200 degrees, which made it possible to create an atmosphere of iron smelting. After heat treatment, iron was concentrated in dough-like form at the bottom of the oven, forming shout(iron spongy mass with particles of unburned charcoal and slag impurities). From the kritsa, which was extracted in a hot state, it was possible to do something, only after cleaning from toxins and eliminating sponginess. For this purpose, cold and hot forging was carried out, which consisted of periodically calcining the kritsa and forging it. As a result, blanks were created that could be used to create iron products. The whole process, as you noticed, is quite complex and time-consuming, which is why iron began to be used in metallurgy so late. And even today, in the age of high technology, iron processing has changed a lot, but the main thing is that this metal remains the main material in all spheres of human life.