CHEM 491

OLDEST PIGMENTS, NUMBER

SYSTEMS AND ALPHABET
LECTURE NOTES

Prof. Dr. URAL AKBULUT

October 10, 2022

October 10, 2022

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 Oldest chemical materials used
were natural pigments
 Chemistry is one of the oldest sciences
 First chemists were the painters who used
natural pigments and printed images of
their hands 43,900 years ago
 Ancient chemists, later invented drawing
figures. They painted figures on cave walls
in Spain 42,000 years ago using natural
pigments
 The oldest painted figures were found on
the wall of Nerja Cave which is 35 miles
2east of Malaga-Spain October 10, 2022
Oldest Hand Sitencils (Indonesia-Maros
Pangkep cave) 43,900 years old

3 October 10, 2022

Oldest chemicals were natural
pigments

The oldest
painting of figures
in the world
(Nerja Cave
Malaga-Spain)
42,000 years old
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16,000 years old cave painting of
animals (France-Lascaux)

5 October 10, 2022

Oldest chemicals used were natural
pigments called “OCHRE”
 The oldest natural chemicals used by
cave men were earth pigments (okra
veya toprak boya)
 Today they are still used everywhere
in the world (cheapest pigments)
 There are various earth pigments with
different colours such as yellow, red,
purple and brown
 Those earth pigments are called
6 “ochre” they are mainly minerals of
October 10, 2022

iron element
Oldest chemicals used were natural
pigments called “OCHRE”
Yellow: FeO (OH)·nH2O (hydrated iron
hydroxide) (Name of the mineral: Limonite)
Red: Fe2O3 (anhydrous iron oxide) (Name of
mineral: hematite)
Purple: chemically similar to red ochre
(anhydrous iron oxide) contains traces of
gypsum (calcium sulfate) or calcite (calcium
carbonate)
Brown: FeO(OH), (Mineral: Goethite), is
7partly hydrated iron oxide October 10, 2022
 HEMATITE

LIMONITE
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October 10, 2022
Red ochre used
for painting a
bison figure on
the wall of a
cave in
(Altamira-Spain)
around 16,000 -
15,000 BC

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City of “Parma” in Italy is famous
for yellow ochre painted buildings
the paint is called “Parma Yellow”

10 October 10, 2022

SALT: was used by oldest chemists
in Neolithic times (6,000 B.C.)
(Neolithic Era: 8,000-5,500 B.C.)
NaCl was used by humans 8
thousand years ago to preserve
food
Salt was being produced in China
from Xiechi Lake (6,000 B.C.)
Salt was later used for tanning
leather by ancient chemists
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Salt was used as “money” later
October 10, 2022
Metals were the oldest elements
used by Neolithic time chemists
Gold: the oldest metal used by
prehistoric chemists
It was known around 6,000 B.C.
Since it is found in nature in
metallic form it was easy for
Neolithic time chemists to collect
them and perhaps shape them by
hammering with stones
It was always very valuable since it
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is rear and does not tarnish (rust)
October 10, 2022
Metals other than gold were
discovered later
Copper: used around 4,200 B.C.
Silver: used around 4,000 B.C.
Lead: used around 3,500 B.C.
Tin: used around 1,750 B.C.
Iron: was first used in Anatolia by
Hatti people and then by Hittites
around 1,400 B.C.
13Mercury: used around 750 B.C.
October 10, 2022
Oldest iron dagger in the world,
It is decorated with gold.
Found in Anatolia-Alacahöyük
2,500-1,600 B.C. made by Hatti
people (they lived before Hittites)
(Iron was obtained from meteorites
composed of Fe-Ni metals)

14 October 10, 2022

 Mystery of symbols found next to
the figures on cave walls
Pigments were used to paint
figures on cave walls
However recently scientists
discovered that near the paintings
there were some symbols like
triangle, circle, square etc in
75%of cave walls
Symbols were 10-40,000 years old
15 October 10, 2022
Symbols are found on cave walls of
many countries (32 are similar)

 We do not know when cave man

started to speak to each other
 However they communicated
somehow
 There are hundreds of symbols on
various cave walls but 32 of the
symbols are common
 One is same as Hashtag symbol (#)
16
Scientists think that may be the
October 10, 2022

symbols were used for communication

Symbols; on cave walls in Africa, Australia,
India, China, America and Malaysia. They
resemble each other (communication?)

17 October 10, 2022

 Before chemical technologies
appeared, some other
developments flourished

Caveman possibly communicated

with each others via simple sounds,
hands, fingers etc.
They may have also used symbols
(or doodles) drawn on cave walls
Then caveman discovered a way to
keep record of number of goods
which they exchanged with others
18 October 10, 2022
The Ishango Bone (Oldest
written record of number of goods
on a bone 20,000 years old)
It was found in 1960 by Belgian Jean de
Heinzelin de Braucourt in Congo

19 October 10, 2022

 DISCOVERY OF NUMBERS
• 20,000 years ago, Stone Age men
marked bones or sticks to keep
record of the amount of goods
exchanged
• 10,000 years ago, after the end of
Glacial Period, trade by exchange
increased. Keeping records on
sticks was not sufficient any more
20 October 10, 2022
 DISCOVERY OF NUMBERS
• Sumerians invented clay tokens to
keep records for trade or exchange
• One circular shaped token with a
cross on it, represented 1 sheep
and 5 tokens with a cross
represented 5 sheeps
• For other goods different tokens
were used
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SUMERIAN
CLAY
TOKENS

22 October 10, 2022

DISCOVERY OF NUMBERS

• Around 4,000 B.C. clay tokens were

fired then strung like beads on a
string
• Then placed into a clay container
which was sealed , stamped and fired
to protect the document of trade
• Sumerians started to use flat clay
tablets around 3,500 B.C.
23 October 10, 2022
DISCOVERY OF NUMBERS

• Around 4,000 B.C. clay tokens were

fired then strung like beads on a
string
• Then placed into a clay container
which was sealed , stamped and fired
to protect the document of trade
• Sumerians started to use flat clay
tablets around 3,500 B.C.
24 October 10, 2022
 DISCOVERY OF NUMBERS
A clay container and the tokens (from
Susa, Iran, ca. 3300 BC)

October 10, 2022

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 DISCOVERY OF NUMBERS

Clay bulla
and tokens,
4000–3100
BC, Susa

October 10, 2022

26
First flat
numerical
clay tablet
Numerical tablet,
3500-3350 BC
(Uruk V phase),
Khafajah
27 October 10, 2022
 DISCOVERY OF NUMBERS

• They started to mark the numbers and

types of trade materials on clay tablets
• Then they used numbers separately from
the material type
• Same sign for numbers like 5 or 7 were
used for all materials
• Sumerians discovered numbers and
writing about 5,000 years ago
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DISCOVERY OF NUMBERS BY
SUMERIANS

29 October 10, 2022

EGYPTIAN NUMERALS

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ROMAN NUMERALS

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DEVELOPMENT OF NUMERALS

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MAYA NUMERALS

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First flat clay tablet with sheep and
number (probably "10"),
Al-Hasakah, 3300–3100 BC, Uruk

34 October 10, 2022

Tablet with pictographic characters (end
of 4th millennium BC), Possibly a list of
slaves' names, the hand in the upper left
corner represents the owner

35 October 10, 2022

The Kish (Tell al-Uhaymir-Bagdat) tablet
with pictographic (resim-yazı) early
cuneiform, writing, 3500 BC. Ione of the
earliest known example of writing

36 October 10, 2022

The table
illustrating the
progressive
simplification
of cuneiform
signs from
archaic
(vertical) script
to Assyrian
37 October 10, 2022
Changes from
Sumerian
pictographic
writing to
Cuneiform script

(From 3,100 B.C.

to 1,000 B.C.)
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 Decipherment of Sumerian
alphabet
 German C. Niebuhr visited Iran and
saw the carvings on Behistun
mountain in 1764
 There were some inscriptions
(writings) and some human figures on
the mountain
 He copied all the inscriptions
 There were 3 inscriptions in 3 different
Languages
39 October 10, 2022
Behistun mountain-Iran: Same text (aynı metin)
in 3 Languages (Persian, Elamite, and
Babylonian). It helped scientists to decipher
Sumerian cuneiform (çivi yazısı) in 1857. Similar
carving is found in Van-Turkey also

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 DEVELOPMENTS OF
CHEMISTRY 491

END OF 0CTOBER 10,

2022 LECTURE

41 October 10, 2022