Neolithic miners

CoLLis (1915) supposed that Neolithic miners digging for flint might have suffered from pneumoconiosis, and, indeed, the man found in the ice at the Hauslabjoch did show anthracosis, and his hair was loaded with arsenic, copper, nickel and manganese (Spindler 2001). 

Between the years 1400 and 1890 the reds that artists used were extracted from plants, such as madder, or from crushed insects, such as the scale insect Dactylopius coccus, or were of mineral origin, such as cinnabar (mercury sulfide, HgS) which could be ground to a powder to produce the pigment vermilion which was much used in antiquity, or red iron oxide (Fe203) which was used by the Neolithic cave painters, or minium (red lead, Pb304). 

Phosphates, arsenates, and vanadates contain a simple molecule of oxygen combined with phosphorous, arsenic, or vanadium. Compounds of P04 are most common. Although this is the largest group of non-silicate minerals, only a few of them are found in museums outside of mineral collections. The most notable exception is turquoise, a phosphate of copper. Variscite is a blue-green phosphate sometimes used as an imitation of turquoise. Callais is variscite from Spain and France that was used in the Early Neolithic as a pigment and to make trade beads. 

Under the microscope, important observations include composition (the mineral and organic contents), texture (size and sorting of sediments), and especially the fabric - the geometric relationships - of the constituents. At the early Neolithic site of Catalhoyuk in Turkey, for example, micromorphology revealed that some of the house floors had been plastered with a thin coat of clay at least 50 times. These thin layers of plaster incorporated many small finds of plant remains and other evidence. 

Stone has been used from Neolithic to built different types of structures (e.g. housing, tombs). Among different stone types, gypsum has been commonly used from early prehistoric times. It is the most abundant sulphate mineral in the World and usually occurs in association with limestone, halite, calcite, and anhydrite. Most gypsum bed deposits are formed as a result of evaporation of seawater that has a large amount of calcium sulphate in solution. 

Neolithic revolution dawn of agriculture and settlements, division of labour and creation of states machines and tools made from rocks,minerals and plants found in ttie environment... 

From archaeological evidence, it is believed that not more than about 20 minerals were known in the palaeolithic age and that this number had increased to about 40 by the end of the neolithic period. With such small numbers, classification was obviously of little relevance, but the number of known minerals appears to have increased almost logarithmically with time, and hence classification is now essential to an understanding of the minerals themselves. Nomenclature, however, has never been systematized, and very few mineral names give an indication of their chemical composition or refer to other attributes most are derived from the locality of origin or commemorate famous people, particularly mineralogists. 

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