Elements known to ancients

In contrast to germanium the exposure of mankind to tin and lead was much earlier and not so dramatic18-21,28. These two elements belong to the seven main elements known to ancient man40. Up to the seventeenth century, tin and lead were often confused, as is witnessed by their Latin names, i.e. Plumbum album, Plumbum candidum (Sn) and Plumbum nigrum (Pb). Tin was known in countries of the Near East at least from the middle of the third millennium BC. Lead became known to the Egyptians at the same time as iron and silver, and very probably earlier than tin19,28. 

Lead is one of only a few elements known to ancient peoples. One of the oldest examples of lead is a small statue found in Egypt. It was made during the First Dynasty, in about 3400 bce. Mention of lead and lead objects can also be found in very old writings from India. And the Bible mentions lead in a number of passages. 

By the 2000s BCE, these early civilizations had begun to distinguish the differences among pure substances that today we would call elements. The elements known to ancient peoples were carbon, iron, copper, silver, gold, mercury, sulfur, tin, lead, and antimony. 

Gold is arguably the first pme element known to early man, since it could be found in stream beds and other geological formations and was visually attractive and easily workable. Medical treatises from ancient civilizations in Egypt, China,... 

When the study of matter became more systematic, the number of known elements started to rise, from the handful of pure substances known to ancient people to the dozens recognized by the time of Antoine Lavoisier in the eighteenth century. Lavoisier and his followers reformed chemistry, partly on the basis of detailed work to clarify the definition of what an element was and partly through careful experiments to identify the characteristics of the known elements. While this work was vital, it actually complicated the situation, as the list of elements continued to grow. Most chemists felt that there had to be some system behind the existence of so many elements, but no one could... 

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