Early interest in minerals
Minerals have fascinated people for thousands of years and they have always been considered important, useful and precious due to their rarity, beauty, hardness, colour or usefulness. Our ties to minerals and rocks extend back into our early beginnings, during the Stone Age, when humans began to use minerals and rocks to make tools and weapons, or to make religious and artistic ornaments.
Chert, obsidian (volcanic glass), quartzite – rock composed primarily of silicon dioxide (SiO2); due to their properties, they are suitable for fracturing and shaping, and in prehistoric times in the Stone Age, they were a commonly used material for making stone tools and weapons – axes, arrow tips and various blades.
Learn moreMinerals, especially halite (rock salt), colored gemstones, precious metals gold and silver, and minerals from which pigments were obtained, were of greatest interest to early civilizations.
Learn morePIGMENTS
Pigments are used as a compound that gives colour to stains, tints, plastic or textile materials, and to food and cosmetic products. They can be of organic or inorganic origin, and are obtained from natural materials or artificially, i.e., chemically synthesised.
Learn morePigments are used as a compound that gives colour to stains, tints, plastic or textile materials, and to food and cosmetic products. They can be of organic or inorganic origin, and are obtained from natural materials or artificially, i.e., chemically synthesised.
The earliest records on the properties of minerals and rocks.
Learn moreObsidian
(volcanic glass)
(volcanic glass)
HALITE,
rock salt
rock salt
CINNABAR