Asia Minor

Anglo-Saxon, Seolfor siolfur L. argentum) Silver has been known since ancient times. It is mentioned in Genesis. Slag dumps in Asia Minor and on islands in the Aegean Sea indicate that man learned to separate silver from lead as earl as 3000 B.C. 

Saffron. Saffron spice is the dried stigmas of Crocus sativus L. (Iridaceae), a bulbous perennial native to southern Europe and Asia Minor and cultivated in the Mediterranean countries, particularly Spain. Tme saffron should not be confused with either meadow saffron, ie, Colchicum autumnale L. (Lihaceae) also called safflower, or bastard saffron, ie, Carthamus tinctorius L. (Compositae), both of which are occasionally used to adulterate tme saffron. 

The earliest record of human usage of iron dates to ca 2000 BC (5) in Egypt, Asia Minor, Assyria, China, and India. It is almost certain, however, that the first iron to be used was not processed but was obtained from meteorites (1). One of the few places where native iron is found is in Greenland, where it occurs as very small grains or nodules in basalt (an iron-bearing igneous rock) that empted through beds of coal. 

Opium is the dried, powdered sap of the unripe seed pod of Papaver somniferum, a poppy plant indigenous to Asia minor. Theophrastus described its medical properties in the third century BC, but the Sumerians, ca BC 4000, probably perceived its utility. Arab physicians knew of the dmg, and Arab traders carried it to the Orient where it was used as a treatment for dysentery. Paracelsus is credited with repopularizing the dmg in western Europe in the early sixteenth century by formulating opium into "laudanum", which is still in use. More than 20 different alkaloids (qv) of two different classes comprise 25% of the weight of dry opium. The benzylisoquinolines, characterized by papaverine [58-74-2] (1.0%), a smooth muscle relaxant, and noscapine [128-62-1] (6.0%), an antitussive agent, do not have any analgesic effects. The phenanthrenes, the second group, are the more common and include 10% morphine (1, = R = H), 0.5% codeine [76-57-3], C gH2 N03, (1, R = H, R = CH3), and 0.2 thebaine [115-37-7], C 2H2 N03, (2). 

Juglone [481-39-0] (Cl Natural Brown 7 Cl 75500) was isolated from the husks of walnuts in 1856 (50). Juglone belongs to the Juglandaceae family of which there are a number of species Jug/ans cinerea (butter nuts), J. regia (Persian walnuts), and J. nigra (black walnuts). Persian walnuts were known to the ancient Romans who brought them over from Asia Minor to Europe. As early as 1664, the American colonists knew how to extract the brown dye from the nuts of the black walnut and butternut trees, both native to eastern North America (51). 

The monetary use of silver may well be as old as that of gold but the abundance of the native metal was probably far less, so that comparable supplies were not available until a method of winning the metal from its ores had been discovered. It appears, however, that by perhaps 3000 BC a form of cupellation was in operation in Asia Minor and its use gradually... 

IhD rose flowers Kcowin nad.rahv Ir. the vallev ol Lake Burdor io the interior of Asia Minor. 

The product is then sent Jowe co Smvrna. liie principal port of Asia Minor, by the railway that connects Burdur wtih the coast to the exporting agents. 

Borax, another fluxing material, is a mineral (composed of hydrated borate of sodium), which has also been known since antiquity. There seems to be no evidence however that it was used in the past as a flux it served mainly as a mordant, for dyeing textiles. Until the eighteenth century borax was apparently procured only from a lake in Tibet, whence it was exported to the Near East and Europe. Sources of borax in Asia Minor and in Tuscany, Italy, were discovered only in much later times. 

The Mossynoeci were a people who lived in Asia Minor, on the shores of the Black Sea, again in modern-day Turkey. 

The term alumen plumosum has had a long association with asbestos. Alumen (= alum) is a general term for naturally occurring hydrous alkali aluminum sulfates. These are efflorescent mineral materials of fibrous, feathery appearance. Confusion with the more durable silicate composition asbestos was not settled until 1741, by Tourneforte following a visit to asbestos deposits in Asia Minor. 

Red deer, Cervus elaphus, when supposedly swimming from Cyprus to the mainland of Asia Minor.)... 

As a boy, Hermaphroditus leaves Mount Ida to seek adventure. He travels to Asia Minor where he encounters Salmacis. She makes advances and is rejected by Hermaphroditus. The cool river waters are a greater temptation... 

The first philosopher to theorize about such matters was Thales of Miletus, at the time, the sixth century B.C., the greatest Greek city Asia Minor. According to Thales there was one fundamental element water, the material of which everything was made. To the modern mind, such an idea seems absurd. However, it is much more reasonable than it might appear. Lacking evidence to the contrary, it must have seemed very plausible that everything was made of some primal material. And if it was, water was really not a bad candidate. 

Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23-79) said that grains of gold were found in the stream-beds of the Tagus in Spain, the Po in Italy, the Hebrus in Thracia, the Pactolus in Asia Minor, and the Ganges in India (5). In the second century before Christ, a cupellation process was used for refining the metal, and in Pliny s time the mercury process was well known (6). 

In 400 B.C., Ktesias of Knidos mentioned the occurrence of natural gas in Karamania, Asia Minor. It provided perpetual flame for the fire-worshippers and fuel for their homes (23). 

Strabo of Amasia, Asia Minor (66 B.C.-24 A.D.), said in his geography that only the Cyprian ore contained the cadmian stone, copper vitriol, and tutty, that is to say, die constituents from which brass can be made (90). He also mentioned a stone in die neighbourhood of Andeira which, when burned, becomes iron, and then, when heated in a furnace witii a certain earth, distils mocksilver [zinc] and this, with the addition of copper, makes the mixture, as it is called, which by some is called mountain-copper [orichalcum, or brass] (91). 

Alexandre-Emile Beguyer de Chan-courtois, 1820-1886. Inspector-general of mines and professor of geology at the Ecole Sup neure des Mines in Paris He made geological explorations m France, Asia Minor, Iceland, and Greenland. As a humanitarian reform to prevent accidents from firedamp, he compelled mine owners to sink two shafts for each coal mine His most important contribution to chemistry was his spiral periodic arrangement of the elements Courtesy Mme. Jean Presne and the Ecole Sup6rieure des Mines, Pans... 

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