Fifty Minerals That Changed the Course of History

The well-known phrase Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, useful in categorising almost everything, especially in quis games, might suggest evolution in reverse. However, in terms of the evolution of culture, one might argue that epochs of hunting and cave art, then agriculture, followed by bronze and iron ages meant that we humans first identified with the animal world, then with plants we could domesticate, before eventually mining the earth's crust for its minerals. Having reviewed the animal and vegetable volumes (respectively in Network 108 and this issue) it remains to follow Eric Chaline as he forges his list of mostly familiar minerals and the impact they've had on our history. Proving that there is something of a blurred line between the organic and inorganic worlds – animals for example secrete mineral shells, bones enamel etc., – Chaline includes the following organic minerals Ivory, Nacre, Amber, Coal, Asphalt and Petroleum. Most space (8 pages) is devoted to gold, iron and petroleum, with 6 pages reserved for silver, ivory, natron, salt, sand, steel, jade, saltpeter, coal, obsidian, bronze, flint and uranium. As is the case with the 50 Plants and 50 Animals that have most influenced the course of history, various nations have benefited from the fortuitous location of minerals deposits, such as coal, oil and, iron to name but a few. Unlike animals and plants that can be transplanted, one cannot move around mineral belts, ore deposits, and chunks of the lithosphere. So nations that sit on mineral; resources – coal for example in the case of Britain and parts of the USA – had a historical head start in the industrial revolution. Chaline argues that Greek silver wealth may have been a critical factor in the rise of western civilisation that directly and indirectly prevented the conquest of the Mediterranean region by the Persians. But wealth is not always a blessing. The Spanish exploitation of Central and South American gold was destined for trouble- because it created a false economy based on a finite resource and not one based on development of natural resources, trade and manufacture. Incidentally some geologists and astronomers believe that the concentration of gold in the Earth's crust is several orders of magnitude higher than expected. This is because, although, during the formation of the earth most of the gold sank deep enough to gold plate the iron core, it was not until a half billion years later that a phase of meteorite bombardment, evidence of which is still seen on the cratered moon, introduced more gold into to our crust. It is not only these gifts from on high that owe their distribution to geological processes, our coal fields reflect the distribution of ancient forests and well-vegetated swamp lands, and our oil and gas fields reflect the distribution and accumulation of all manner of organic remains in various ocean basins. Traditionally, archaeology recognises the stone, copper, bronze and iron ages. Flint and obsidian are particularly important 'stone' species that were mined, worked and traded earlier and for longer than any other rock types. They continued in use long after the first metals were forged around 7,000 BP. Thus the Spanish Iron Age clashed with the Aztec and Inca stone ages. The famous Iceman Ötzi discovered in 1991 on the Austrian-Italian border provides the most complete record of an individual, including his clothing, copper axe, herb pouch and tattoos associated with what we would today recognise as acupuncture pressure points. Ötzi dates from the dawn of the Bronze age, around 5,200 BP, but it appears he was killed by a stone arrow head. Around 3,200 BP we enter the period known as the Bronze Age collapse, possibly brought on by the introduction of iron weapons and technology. The Iron Age in turn didn't become the Steel age until the 19th century, even though steel swords were produced in Syria, Spain and Japan by late medieval times. Somewhere along the way bronze or iron technology helped in the production of glass, which was widely manufactured by Roman times. It has been argued that these western developments, particularly from the 16th century onwards led to the "great divergence" between China and the west that lasted until the 10th century. Did the development of glass windows and optical interest really give the west the enlightenment advantage of which modern western science is so proud? It is not only metal weapons that have been the cause of countless deaths. Many metals are toxic and can be administered directly or inadvertently as poisons. Arsenic was a favorite poison with the Borgias and has even been implicated in the death of Napoleon and Charles Darwin. In the latter case the famous naturalist was evidently addicted to Fowler's Solution a remedy known to contain arsenic. Beer inadvertently laced with arsenic killed some 6,000 people in Manchester in 1900. The dangers of lead poisoning are well-known and likely led to the early decline of the Roman empire and the madness of several emperors, long before its use in petrol, paint and other products was shown to be an environmental hazard especially for children. The toxicity of Mercury is equally well known from the history of mining and the accumulation of the metal in fish and other animals high on the food chain. As further proof that smoking is dangerous pipes were at one time made from asbestos, and the workers making the matches used to light them were subjected to a nasty disease called "phossy jaw." An equally nasty poisoning broke out among the girls working for the Radium Corporation during World War II, as they painted phosphorescent paint known as Undark on wrist watches, in some cases deliberately painting their lips, nails and eyebrows with the novel radioactive substance. The dangers of exposure to Uranium and Plutonium need hardly be enumerated. Thankfully, amber, jade, coral, marble and other non-toxic 'minerals,' gems and ornamental stones, have provided the raw material for artistic creations and craft traditions that help to define and showcase our cultural identities in positive ways. Unlike coal, oil and gas which cause problems because of their abundance and abundant use, ivory is an increasingly scarce resource. As the piano took over from the harpsichord in popularity an average of 31 kilos of ivory was necessary to furnish the keys for each instrument. Today, long after the Mediterranean elephant was hunted to extinction in antiquity, the African elephant faces a similar plight. Despite the invention of an artificial celluloid plastic used to make billiard balls and other fake ivory products, and the more recent (1989) United Nations moratorium on Ivory sales, the poaching of ivory continues at an alarming pace. This has caused an artificial selection process whereby the proportion of tusk-less elephants has increased from a mere 1% at the start of the 20th century to ~30% at the start of the 21st Chaline's section on Petroleum is quite a diatribe against the industry and its "blind self- interest…ideological motivations…political power…[and] willful denial." Many nineteenth century scientists would have said that animal, vegetable and mineral products such as coal, and later oil and gas, were fortuitously distributed and placed at our disposal in the Earth's crust by a benevolent creator, who looked favorably on human activity and enterprise. The reader may wish to judge for him/herself the extent to which we have used these gifts wisely. We may also wish to ponder the extent to which human selfishness, or naivety and ignorance, have been culpable for mismanagement of mineral resources, and failure to correct such errors of judgment once the downside and side effects of the extractive industries have been recognised. Put another way, are we always destined to create problems and make mistakes before we learn to rectify them? Whatever our individual verdicts, it seems clear that the use and misuse of minerals as well as plants and animals follows cycles that are inextricably linked to our cultural, technological and socio-economic evolution. Hopefully, shifts in our awareness of what it is we do will lessen our misuse of these resources, and increase our capacity to nurture a sustainable lithosphere and biosphere.